Armored Core:The Plus Effect
by Kounji
Summary: New Chapter 6 added. After the tragic loss of their leader Demon Squad is back on the job but will the sudden appearance of enemies long loss bring a revelation bigger than any of them can handle. Demon Squads first mission has been uneventful but a certa
1. Requiem

Armored Core and all related characters and concepts are property of Agetec and From Software and are   
not mind. All the characters in this story are mind so please ask before using (Like anyone would)  
  
Characters  
  
Demon Squadron Pilots  
  
Commander Mia Vinosec (Age 25) (French Female from Newport)  
Captain Kounji Takagi (Age 22) (Japanese Male from FortGarden)  
Lieutenant Kai Isamo (Age 21) (Japanese Female from Fort Garden)  
Captain Linnaeus Valione (Appears to be 25) (Italian/ Japanese Female from Unknown)  
Lieutenant Amaro Satoshi (Age 29) (Male from Zam City)  
  
Demon Squadron Technical Personel  
  
Chief Tech Wilson Macintyre (Age 43) (Caucasian Male from Amber Crown)  
Assistant Chief Tech Alexandria Macintyre (Age 16) (Caucasian Female from Amber Crown)  
1st Class Tech Tizoku Ichigawa (Age 22) Japanese Male from Isaac City)  
  
Kensei Corporate Personel  
  
Jinkai Kensei (Age 52) (Japanese Male from Isaac City)  
General Iora Conniver (Age 44) (Caucasian Female from Fort Garden)  
General Eric Reynaldo (Age 50 ) (Latino Male from Amber Crown  
Colonel Kenneth Greenfield (Age 37) (Caucasian Male from Fort Garden)  
Asahi Noda (Age 46) (Japanese Male from Isaac City)  
  
Chrome Corporate Personnel  
  
Motobo Nazuka (Age 42) (Japanese Male from Isaac City)  
Commander Ustasia Langley (Russian/English female from Amber Crown)  
Captain Kogan Runo (French/Spanish male from Amber Crown)   
  
Core Mercenaries   
Derrik Chadon (Age 30) (African Male from Isaac City)  
Nick Kawasaki (Age 25) (Japanese Male from Gal City)  
Gia Chen (Age 23) (Chinese Female from Tei Sai Wastelands)  
  
Civilians  
Feln Edine (Age ???) (Caucasian male from Isaac City)  
Mazen Delenair ( Age 30) (French male from Isacc City)  
  
  
  
First a quote that I think all should know  
  
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there   
is and all there is.   
Allan Watts  
  
Chapter 1:Requiem for a Hero  
Earth: 2238 June 17 8:00 am GMT  
Iccopa Coliseum, Isaac City  
  
  
The academy, The years and years of fighting underground, on the surface, and in space; even all the time he had with all his comrades especially Kai. None of it mattered.  
  
Vance is Dead. That was the only thing that mattered, at least to Kounji Takagi. The reality had just not set in for Kensei Global Security Force Operator. His mentor and best friend had given his very soul to save Isaac City, the birthplace of the two men and the largest urban center in the world. Even has he stood ten feet away from the unfilled casket of Vance it just wouldn't go away. It was unfilled because during the climax of Vance and Kiros' battle not only was Vance's AC "Valiant" destroyed but his body was incinerated completely. Once again, a warrior of the Corporate War had given their life invain. Just Like Dad. Kounji thought. The stories of Vance's time with the unit that Kounji's father led, the Ryuuko Kishin reentered his mind. At the beginning of Vance's Career, Vance was partners with Kounji's father, his long time friend Ayuna, and the rebellious Kiros Zain. Vance was the only survivor of a supposed patrol of an abandoned   
Chrome Base or at least he was until news of Kiros' survival. The group was ambushed by Chrome Forces and Vance was the only one who narrowly escaped after Kounji's father told him too.   
  
  
Kounji sat with his head down on the large concert stage awaiting the arrival of Mia Vinosec the quiet, calm, yet very charismatic friend of the departed Kurasagi. Kounji didn't talk much to his last surviving friend from his academy days, Kai Isamo, in fact he hadn't said anything to her that whole day. When they had occasionally locked eyes, Kounji had gathered that Kai want to keep to herself. Kounji deep inside, felt the same way; there wasn't much to be said. Mia Vinosec, Vance's friend, and partner of 4 years, when Kounji had talked to her earlier that morning had seemed to be taking it better than he had. Maybe the fact that she had helped Kensei Corp. and Isaac City coordinate and even   
plan the services allowed her to cope better, or was it knowing that her or Vance could die at anytime that allowed her to deal with it..   
  
Despite the small funeral with family and a few friends Vance may have wanted, the leaders of Isaac had strictly pushed for a funeral on a grander scale to rally the masses. Kounji was never one to use others to pursue his own agenda but Kensei and the leaders of the Isaac City Council were all for that sort of thing. Kounji was surprised that Mia had decided to help since she had known Vance for so long and would probably share the same convictions. Mia had told Kounji earlier in the week that she wanted to help   
the Isaac Council turn something positive out of the tragedy the way Vance would have also wanted it. She had to always be working on something anyway. So Kounji decided to just accept it.The spot they chosen Iccopa, had never held a public funeral or any other type of funeral for that matter. It was constructed to look like a large scaled version of ancient Roman coliseums except that it was techno decorated and hosted the more modern form of gladiator combat, Armored Core Arena Competitions. Today, the coliseum was filled with thousands of people who have heard of Vance, lived in   
Isaac or were just interested. Many sources speculated that this would be one of the biggest public funerals in the history of the world. It was scheduled to broadcast as far as the Space Fleets surrounding the moon.   
  
Kounji lifted his head up and took a long glance around the Coliseum he immediately noticed Kensei's C.E.O Jinkai Kensei in the first row with his aides and staff. Further back was the bulk of the pilots from the Raven's Nest that many of the Ravens who had known Vance over the years such as the African   
pilot Derrick "Wildman" Chadon, and Chinese pilot Gia Chen. Many people further back were from Kounji's family and Mia's. Before he got a chance to look further, he saw Mia approaching the staircase to the podium. He remembered hearing her approach from further back, but his mind was drifting. Mia stepped up to the podium looking confidant and ready as always. Even though he had known Mia for three years, he   
was struck again by her enormous charisma. Something about her-her walk, her posture gave off a sense of surging power in the woman. She looked over her shoulder into Kounji's eyes with a compassionate smile on her face. Kounji tried his best to send one equally back. Off to his right he swore he could hear Kai grumbling in protest.   
  
Mia was dressed up beautifully in a white and blue Kensei military dress uniform that day looking steady and keeping a smile despite obvious concern at the time. Mia clicked on her trademark terminal goggles on from the right side of her face and an orange electronic screen flew over her eyes. Words began to scroll. Cameras zoomed in on her face. Then she finally began to speak  
  
"People of Isaac City, Today as you all know we are here to pay respects to AC pilot Vance   
Kurasagi". Mia stated over nanophone." First, I would like to say that not only in the last week as he done a great service to Isaac, but his whole life he had given his heart and soul into this city. Ever since he was a little boy he always wanted the city to be a lot nicer. For people to stop being so cold to each other and for all the useless fighting stop. He never had any reason to become a soilder. There were plenty of ways for   
him to make money in this world. It was through being a pilot of cores that he felt like was able to make a difference againist those would seek to destroy innocent lives. Those would seek to gain power by any means necessary. He felt they were the people who were responsible for how the world is today. Over the years Vance partook in missions to defend the people of the underground cities from this problem. Right up   
until he died" Mia took a short breath before continuing  
  
" In his last months I remember him saying if you can't do anything for the benefit of anyone else why is life worth living". Mia quoted " He cared for the people a whole lot". Mia glanced downward at the unfilled casket of Vance Kurasagi. Kounji noticed that someone had walked through one of Coliseum entrances before dropping to their knees. He knew it had to be one person, Vance's fiancé, Linay Valione who he could hear wailing from as far as she was. He wanted to go and hug her and console her in his   
heart but in his mind he would see that has being distracting to Mia's message so he didn't do anything about it.. Mia once again looked forward and spoke again.  
  
"For the many of you that did not know him personally, he was a great guy. Earlier in his career, around the time I first met him I was corporate hacker; ruining many of Isaac City's corporate databases and webs with a few other hackers. Vance was the one who discovered I had a great mind and I could and could pilot and operate many types of machinery including Armored Cores and I was not the only one; most   
of his comrades here on the stage, most of the pilots here today, were recruited by Vance. We all fell under the spell of his daring, his uncompromising integrity, and his unshakable confidence in himself and others.   
This very egotistical man made us believe we were capable of much more than we believed. It's what we all loved about him." Mia said  
"As Vance matured, he lost his frigidness and began to look around and actually want to fight for the good of the people not for the money. This is when he became the great person we remember him as. He was brave and never shied away from a battle especially if someone was going to get hurt by his in-actions. He and our unit always went into battles against all odds and we always made it back even at his own expense. His skill and his will always made it that way. Vance went out the way he would have wanted doing exactly what I just told you. Fighting for us." Mia paused in mid speech. Kounji saw the glitter of a tear drop from Mia's eye and run down her face. "He truly lived when he was operating the AC but he couldn't escape the fact that the AC was weapon of destruction." " When he was alive his spirit and his will gave power to a weapon of destruction but now that he is at rest we should now use his spirit, his will, to power a movement towards peace. This is the task set before you." Mia clicked off her terminal goggles.   
Everyone in the auditorium stood up and began a great applause. Mia stepped away from the podium griping her left arm with her right has she took her seat.  
  
A man dressed in a Chrome Military officer's uniform stood up and walked in front of the casket. The applause then quieted. A soldier stepped up next to him and raised the Kensei Military flag. Seven more Kensei soldiers stood up with their rifles to their sides. It's over he really is gone. "Present arms!" the   
officer said. The soldiers raised their guns high. "Fire" The first round of shots rang out. He's not coming back. "Fire" The second round of shots rang out. It can't ever happen again. "Fire" The final round of   
shots rang out. It won't ever happen again, Not while I'm still alive. Not a tear the entire time came from   
Kounji's eyes.   
  
***  
  
Earth: 2238 June 17 9:30amGMT  
Zalm Desert  
Location Unknown  
  
42-year-old Motobo Nakuza grinned at his holo-television. Though he did grieve over the loss of one of humanity and Chrome's greatest assets; at the same time he loss a major thorn in his side. Thanks to Vance, Chrome was quickly gaining negative publicity from the Kiros incident. He and the last of the Chrome Security and Military forces were hidden within the depths of the Zalm desert at one of their two undiscovered locations. He was now reduced to living as his soldiers do in a underground military facility   
due to the recent incidents. His quarters were poorly illuminated, dirty despite anything he did to clean or cover the smell and very small. On the far left, there was a small bed with an uncomfortable flat mattress. In the center was a poor excuse for a steel table and a steel-folding chair that anyone could tell didn't match,   
that he was sitting in the middle. For any bodily excretions, there was small bathroom refresher area that was small enough to be a fourth of his previous closet space. Last, but not least was his entertainment a 16 million-color holo-television that could barely get the correct hair color of Mia Vinosec's hair. The   
situation was enough to make any one who wasn't used to living in a prison sick. It was like moving from the Taj Mihal of the pre-Great Destruction Days to an outhouse of the same era to Motobo. It certainly didn't help that was Motobo was extremely anal about the whole situation at all. Good news, however had finally come for Motobo, and frankly, he was just damn happy about it.   
  
Motobo watched as Kounji Takagi and Amaro Satoshi and a few others of the pallbearers took   
Vance's casket away out of Iccopa. They were heading off to Kazian Community Cemeterywhere the actual burial was to take place. The television programming then went to then to the news. Motobo got up from his bed that he was sitting on and went to his bathroom to rinse his face despite how much it hurt him to be close the pungent smell eminating from the toilet. Motobo looked at the water droplets that ran down his face. He focused in on his eyes looking staring into to their deep brown depths. Now that Vance is   
gone, the rest of Demon Squadron will use him as a martyr to find me. Motobo thought. At that moment, Motobo got a buzz at the door to his Quarters. Motobo turned off his holo-television via voice and walked from his bathroom to his front door just when the news began talking about him. He looked up at a monitor hanging in the upper right hand corner of his door. He was greeted by the a medium-height woman with jet-black hair a gray tank top and camouflage shorts. She looked up into the camera mounted   
outside. It was obviously Langley. Her athletic build combined with her impatient lean made that apparent.   
  
" It's me Langley." The person on the other side said. " What's so important." Motobo replied.  
  
"It's time for your usual morning jog of the base, sir" Langley said.  
  
Motobo finally opened the door. He was not glad at all to see Langley due to the realization that had just popped up in his mind. However, the thought of jogging with a beautiful military officer like Langley might actually take his mind off Demon Squadron and Vance Kurasagi. Motobo went to his dresser sifting through it for his jogging fatigues. "So Langley you wouldn't have happened to have watched the funeral   
this morning?" Motobo said trying to strike a conversation. He grabbed a pair of shorts and slipped them on. "Yeah me and a couple of the other officers watched it in the mess; is that what you're so depressed about?" Langley replied in a sarcastically sincere tone. Langley was always good about knowing peoples feelings and exploiting them but then I'm not one to be exploited. Motobo had just finished dressing up but didn't reply back. Motobo tried to walk out his front door but Langley got in front of him. " The worst enemy   
to this corporation is dead, honey, you should be overjoyed" Langley said to Motobo while trying to hold him. "But he's a martyr now Carla surely his unit is going to put all its efforts into finding me." Motobo said while shrugging Langley off him. He put his hands up against the wall next to the door and began stretching his calf muscles "With much of Kensei directing its efforts into finding me ill be dead or rotting in a prison somewhere in two months at the latest." You're wrong sir Kensei has bigger fish to fry; they have a   
huge city to regroup and rebuild. We have a lot more time than you think." Langley said back. Langley then looked out side into the hallway and saw several of the other officers eavesdropping on their conversation. She gave them a cold glare, stomped moderately hard on the grated metal floor, and then has if on instinct they continued going about their business. Langley turned back toward Motobo and then   
smiled. " Come on sir it's time for us to go the other officers are already suspicious and we haven't even begun to talk about that juicy stuff yet. " Langley mumbled.  
  
The pair left out of Motobo's quarters and then began jogging down the long tan walled corridor at a fairly steady pace has not to tip off Motobo's in ability to jog for long distances. While running Motobo took time out to view Langley's posture and way of movement. A common practice that allowed him to analyze the character of people he would need to deal with either diplomatically or through aggression. She jogged as if she had done it many times before. Langley's steps were in perfect rhythm, with no   
overstepping or under stepping at all.   
  
About three and a half intersections down they turned and made their way towards the large entranceway to the Maintenance Area.. "Ok, Carla apparently you have something to talk about with me ?" Motobo asked. "Seeing that we're going into the maintenance area where you probably won't hear a thing I'm saying, I'll wait." she said As the two made their way into the Maintenance area, Motobo's senses were overwhelmed with bright high intensity torch flames and the sound of whirling drills. The maintenance facility was large compared to those usually found in underground bases. It sported about 18 AC   
assemblers, which were now also supporting in the manufacturing of Advance Chaos 1.5 mecha. The two jogged directly down the center of the floor being careful to get out of the way of the many hazards that were found an area has busy has the Maintenance floor. As they jogged through slowly Motobo noticed a group of workers standing around with their attention focused at a Chaos 1.5 mecha under one of the   
assemblers. "We've done, by god we've done it!" A worker yelled. Motobo moved closer near the crowd and saw what all the ruckus was. It was around some kind of test results being displayed on a holograph laptop. "Motobo nudged his way in front of one of the workers gathered around the MT. Motobo took a quick look at the booming long legged MT before focusing his attention at the man who had spoke earlier.   
"What exactly have you done Mr.'…" Motobo asked "Zachary, Giles Zachary" Giles said. Motobo crossed his shoulders as Langley looked on at the conversation proceeding.  
"Well it's quite amazing actually I think it would be able to do it for fast and for that long" Giles said. "Chaos 1.5 was able to charge up its energy completely with in three seconds of start up as well as recharge in 10 seconds after a complete energy burnout. I guess I would owe it to how energy efficient the parts for this model are." Giles continued. The man pushed up his prescription glasses further up his nose.   
This told Nazuka he didn't have enough sense to buy glasses that fit and if he didn't have that how could he possibly have enough sense to design a MT from next to scratch.   
"That's good news Mr. Zachary but do the weapons work efficiently." Motobo asked objectively. "Well, we have yet to test the new PX-M5 missiles has as well the updated laser cannons and the new chest gun based off the WG-Finger design have yet to be   
tested outside of the simulations. We'll need a field test in order to make sure." Giles said. Motobo put his arms back to his side. He looked upon Giles with slight amusement. "Well keep up the good work Mr. Zachary I'll let you know on a date for that field test." Motobo said. "Very well Mr. Nazuka" Zachary said. Nazuka and Langley turned away from the crowd and began jogging towards the elevator at the edge of the room.   
  
The two entered and Motobo set the elevator for his personal office floor while Langley leaned up against the opposite side. The doors closed and the elevator began ascending. "Well, the fact that you don't ever jog must have tipped you off apparently". Carla said while crossing her arms. "You know Langley I'm not in the mood for your sarcasm this morning." Motobo said. He faced left and looked out the large window that revealed the MT hanger where many technicians were busy doing routine maintenance on a   
few of the units including one or two of the more heavy advanced modeled MTs and a few Armored Cores. He could see and hear sparks shooting off as robot welders put melded together sheets of Ferrous Titanium that were to be used has the armor covering for Chaos machines further back in the room "How's   
the production of the modified advance Chaos models going." Motobo asked. "It is going along perfectly, seeing how Giles was able to get the generator working efficiently they should be done by the end of the month slightly ahead of schedule. sir." Langley said.  
  
  
  
Motobo laughed a bit in his mind trying to remain somewhat stiff hearted. He knew it was all for show there obviously something more on Langley's mind then day-to-day operations. " What is this surprise Langley?" Motobo continued. Langley then walked next to where Motobo was standing. "I have a way of destroying the remnants of Demon Squadron". Langley whispered into his ear. "It's something that they would never think of looking for or at least wouldn't be looking for actively." Langley continued. Motobo punched in a keycode next to where the elevator buttons were. This code was to make it so any other elevator calls would be bypassed until the two reached their destination. This was obviously   
something on the agenda. Motobo turned back toward Langley." This proposal would solve one problem but what about Kensei itself." Motobo queried. "If this guy's is as good as he says he is then Demon Squadron and Kensei will both be just memories soon enough." Langley answered. This guy huh, I really hope it isn't some professional assassin or something  
  
The elevator then came to its final stop, the office of Motobo Nazuka. The two stepped out of the elevator and Motobo noticed a man sitting in a chair outside of Motobo's office. He was a bald white man who looked to be of middle age. The way he had his legs folded over one another in the chair suggested he had made himself comfortable in front of Motobo's office. This disturbed Motobo greatly. "Meet Alian Malikai, Great Destruction Researcher, Scientist, and former Chrome employee." Alian got up from his chair and walked   
over to place out is hand hoping to great Motobo properly. Motobo neglected to extend his hand. Alian promptly returned his arm back to his side.   
"I can understand your reluctance Mr. Nazuka, I used to work for your corporate enemies Linnale and Murakumo, but I assure those two were both temporary contract work and nothing more." Alian said.  
  
"I hope you went through all the necessary precautions before bringing him here Langley". Motobo said threateningly. Motobo then walked over to his desk and took a seat.   
" I'm not stupid you know of course I did he wouldn't be able to find his way back for all the credits in the world". Langley replied. Motobo then gestured Alian and Langley to take a seat. "  
"Before you begin Alian there is one thing I would like to know".Motobo started " Alian looked a little worried before he replied.   
"What would that be?" Alian asked.  
"Why work for Chrome why not Kensei they would surely pay more for whatever this weapon, most likely, is? You have nothing to gain." Motobo said.   
"Lets just say that Kensei wouldn't have the guts to do it" Alian replied. "Oh, men at this level are capable of more than you could possibly dream of Mr. Malikai. Motobo said  
" Biological weapons?" Motobo asked.   
"No something far different." Alian answered. Langley glanced over at Malakai before smiling at Motobo waiting for the former C.E.O. to answer. By the look how much Langley smiled at Motobo it was obvious she knew how he was going to answer. "Ok Alian name your price." Motobo said Alian grinned "Before I do that there will be a few things required   
by your corporation just one or two minor tasks."   
"You already have my undivided attention" Motobo replied.   
"I need access to your companies central computer mainframe there are a few files deeply   
embedded in it from long ago that will provide me with the tools I need." Alian said. ."   
"The database is out of the question it's not with us its still in Isaac City and we were unable to transfer all of the files in the system before we abandoned it thanks to some incompetence." Motobo explained  
" I propose an undertaking then." Langley said.   
" I do hope this weapon of yours is worth using a few resources for". Motobo said.  
" If it works how it's supposed to, it should be a crushing blow to our enemies Mr. Nazuka. Alian said.  
Motobo made his way behind his chair and sat himself down finally. "By the way Mr. Malikai I was wondering what exactly is in this for you?" Motobo asked. Alian took a second to think about it before he replied which made Motobo wonder if there really was anything in it for him. "Oh, for me it's just a chance   
to finish something I started on a long time ago.  
  
  
  
  



	2. False Rememberence

  
  
Chapter 2: Heart  
Earth: 2238 July 1st, 8:00 am  
Yelo Heights Suite # 172, Isaac City  
  
  
This feels familiar. Linay thought to herself. Linay in her lightly configured Armored Core, the Crystal Blue, flew beneath an overpass filled with cars attempting to drive out of that section of Isaac City The blue- haired Amazon pilot was in her AC flying toward the ensuing battle between Vance and Kiros. Besides the cars that were trying to get away from the carnage, there were even citizens running. Following her not too far behind was Mia and Kounji side by side in their units. The furious pilot continued her ground level run towards Vance's last reported position. She came up closer to where her 2D map said it was marked, and saw it was a highly elevated. She boost jumped over an overturned car and continued upwards until she reached a high overpass common in cities like Isaac. She flew over the side of the street and has she hovered comfortably over the edge she cut off her boosters and landed perfectly on the middle of the street.   
  
Linay looked further down the street attempting to locate Vance. There was smoke and flames billowing out of a building nearby. She cringed as she noticed burned corpses of those who tried to escape. Suddenly she heard a loud spraying noise. She quickly rotated her AC in the looked in the direction of the noise and she saw a few missiles plow into a skyscraper in the distance. The middle of the building's structure cracked and she could hear it breaking apart from as far away, as she was. The top half of the building cracked, broke off from the middle of the building, and began to fall towards the city floor below. My god it is looking bad over in that direction, he has to be there. Linay maneuvered down the street. After a few seconds of walking down the street, the skyscraper finally hit the ground causing it to shake violently. This is that part where the overpass is supposed to fall and Kounji nearly gets killed Linay thought. Suddenly the street felt like it was going to give way. The concrete street began to buck and collapse. Linay instinctually jumped and boosted out of the way just has a large portion of it had given way. The large pieces of the broken portion tumbled down towards where Kounji and Mia were boosting there way up. Mia ducked out of the way with ease but Kounji on the other hand couldn't make it in time. Linay heard him gasp and then curse has his AC got nicked by a the end of the street s. "My left arm actuator is screwy" Kounji said. "Don't complain to me about it Kounji." Linay responded. A few seconds later, the street hit the ground making the earth surrounding it shake crushing the overturned car like a tin can. Linay landed back on the rest of the street that was remaining, and boosted off in the direction of the skyscraper explosion. Mia reached the broken overpass shortly after and so did Kounji.   
  
Linay boosted her way along the highway towards the Skyscraper explosion. As she reached a highway sign, Linay's vision became blurry. Suddenly she felt the straps that bound her to her AC disappear. The confines of her cockpit also faded. This part she remembered all to well. She was running down the street speaking to Vance over her headset. Her heart was beating rapidly so much that anyone close to her could have easily heard it." Don't do it Vance there might be another way out of this- I'll fight Kiros." Linay said She fell to her knees panting. She began sobbing uncontrollably. "You don't have to die here Vance." Linae continued. Linay lunged her fist into the concrete. She didn't even notice the blood that dripped from her knuckles. "Why it's not like I mean very much to you Linay." Vance said.   
  
"I do care Vance but there was nothing I could possibly do" Linay replied defensively.   
"If you really cared enough you would be here my love." Vance said back to her.   
"Don't say that!" You don't understand" Linay begged  
"Good bye Linay.  
  
Then an explosion hit engulfing the landscape into a blue light until it completely covered Linay's vision. Suddenly Linay was in the darkness; cold and naked she looked around for any sign of reality. She then saw the silhouette of four figures appear from the void.. Three of them were about the same height while the other one was about a foot shorter. As they moved forward the shadows around them faded and Kounji, Mia, Roc and mousy little Kai were revealed, "You failed all of us, Linay." The one she saw was Roc said "You only care about yourself and not anyone else." His body was decaying and very cadaverous. Linay felt nauseated when she saw that his left arm was still missing from a terrorist attack a few years ago. Suddenly more figures came from the darkness. All of their bodies were either burnt beyond recognition or zombie-like. "That's why we're all dead its all rest on your shoulders, on your shoulders." They all said. They were all saying this while surrounding around her. "I love all of u no its not true". The talking continued. "You never cared about anyone but yourself how could deserve someone has caring as Vance". Mia said. "Traitor, Coward. " Kai screamed at Linay. "Stop it there all lies, stop it." Linay fell to her knees gripping her ears but the chanting still rang within them. "I should have never saved you if I knew this would happen, I guess you weren't really worth the trouble." Kounji said. Linay could not bare the repetitious chant. "It's your fault, all your fault," they said. A dark silhouette of a male floated down to the kneeling Linay. "Lineous!" The voice called her. There was something odd about the voice it sounded like the voice of men and women and even synthetic voices all rolled in to one Linae looked up at the figure. "Linay I know your secret." The people continued to press Linay further and further until darkness came.  
  
Linay woke up in her bed alone, sweating and panting. It was only a dream she had, an inaccurate one at that. She flicked her blue white stranded hair back and sat up on her bed. It had been two weeks since Vance's funeral and she still was not able to push Vance from being the number one thing on her mind. What could this all mean? Why would Vance say something like that? She peered over to the right of where she was laying and saw a picture of herself and Vance kissing at one of the many Banquets that Kensei held over the years. She remembered that particular one fondly. It was the one where Vance asked Linay to marry him. She remembered the way he kissed her and how his touch felt. The way he always moved his hands across her shoulders. She knew she was never going to have those feelings again. " I love you so much Vance." Linay said to the picture. "I'm sorry I failed you." It was the one where Vance asked Linay to marry him. She sat up on her bed holding the picture. As she looked into Vance's eyes, tears began to flow from hers. Why couldn't I save you Vance? Linay thought to herself. She held the picture close to her and began to cry.  
  
It took her several minutes to bring herself back to control. She placed her picture back on the nightstand and whipped her tears away from her face with her left index finger. Linay then turned on the holovision. "The news was defaulted as usual. It was Katherine Thompson from Isaac Global News on the screen. She her eyes looked a bit droopy. Linay had a confrontation with Thompson a year earlier. Ever since, she hasn't liked the reporter. " Hi welcome back to the morning Isaac Global News, With news correspondent Katherine Thompson." A voice of screen said "Today Kensei Corporation is due to announce the beginning of the rebuilding of Southern Isaac City, as you know three weeks ago was the attack pressed upon Isaac by Armed Forces allegedly connected to Chrome. In related news, public hero Vance Kurasagi..." Linay turned off the television before she saw Vance's face on the TV again. Every time she looked at something or went somewhere that reminded her of Vance, it hurt her.  
  
Linay eased her way out of her double bed and walked in to her bathroom. She slowly shut the door behind her.. Why couldn't I have just gone with you Vance? Linay slipped out of her nightgown and stepped into her shower. She closed the shower door before shutting the water on and cranking up the heat. She felt that maybe the warm water would help her wake up and stop thinking about the strange dream that she had. Nevertheless, has she soaked in the water for several minutes, the effects that she had hoped for had not come.  
  
***  
  
Earth: 2238 July 1st 10:00am GMT  
Kensei Corporate HQ, Isaac City  
  
  
Mia Vinosec stepped off an elevator on to the 35th floor of the Kensei Corporate headquarters building. Accompanying her was Kounji Takagi. They were both in formal civilian dress. Mia felt great actually getting back to work again. Just something about not being active just bothered her. Today would involve her meeting with the C.E.O of the Kensei Corporation and many of its Military leaders. This would be the Demons' first official day back on the job. The two stepped into an off white hallway that was virtually bare of any other decor except for the Kensei "Fan" logo along the walls. The floor of the hallway was a black contrast. It was ironic to Mia that the hallway was black and white while executives normally favored gray areas. Mia walked ahead of Kounji taking a guiding lead ahead of him. As Kounji and her reached a turn, she looked off to her left appearing to be checking the passageway when she was really just trying to get a look at Kounji out of the corner of her eye. She had to admit he looked pretty attractive all dressed up in suit and tie. She noticed that he was bit nervous because of how stiffly he was walking. She didn't know exactly why he so nervous; he had been to important meetings before with him. Maybe he worried if the Demons would get a chance to avenge his mentor's death or maybe it was something as simple if his hair looked right. Still he definitely caught her eye. She could not quite put her finger on why she liked him. He seemed to be more into his mecha and running around with Kai than into relationships.  
  
The two up to this point had been catching each other up on the past few weeks' events. "I wonder why exactly Jinkai called us here for today Kounji-san?" Mia asked. " Probably something about the rebuilding efforts, a reassignment perhaps." Kounji said. Kounji, always so serious you would expect him to tell a joke here and there. Mia thought, "Have you gotten a chance to talk to Linay at all?" Mia asked.   
  
The duo stopped. "No, she hasn't picked up her phone at her and Vance's suite at all in the past week." "Have you had contact with her?" Kounji asked back. "Well, I wouldn't be asking you if I did." She said sarcastically. " Though I do hope she is alright, it reminds me of what happened to my aunt." She said.  
  
"Your aunt?" Kounji asked  
  
"My aunt killed herself about a week after she lost her fiancé in a car crash. It was tragic my mom told me after that to always look after someone's brother, sister, or lover. I wouldn't want Linay to turn out the same way. "Mia continued. " Having Linay die right after Vance would be the last thing I think any of us would like to see."   
  
  
"Ok then it's settled I'm going to go see if she is all right after we're done here. Her place is only about twenty miles from here." Kounji said. Mia grabbed Kounji's arm. "It's good that you've decided to take some initiative Mr. Takagi, it's a change" Mia replied back smiling. "If another person's life is in danger, especially someone I care about then there isn't much decision to be made. " Kounji stated. " I'll hold you to that Kounji-san." Mia said giggling. The two continued their walk down the long corridor. Mia noticed while they continued their long trip to Kensei's Boardroom that Kounji's head was looking slightly upward at the ceiling. "What's got your head bobbing Takagi?" Mia asked. " Oh nothing, its just that their have been cameras following us the whole way in. Does Kensei have some big secret he's hiding in here or something.? Kounji said. "Oh, yeah I forgot you've never been cleared to this area of the building before now." Mia said. Kounji nodded. " Well it's always been like this except there is an absence of guards this time very strange." " But in addition to those camera's heat sensors sound, everything the most secure floor in the entire building, well next to the central computer floor but that's in the lower regions" "Mia continued. She reveled in how astute the two of them were and wondered if Kounji was astute enough to notice the same thing.  
  
"So now after listening to your small talk I get to ask something." Mia said. Mia halted her walking Kounji noticed then followed suit. She put her hands behind her back grasping her fingertips and then turned toward Kounji. Wait what's wrong with me I can't go for the kill, not yet at least. "Oh never mind it can wait" Mia said, "I'll tell you when this thing is over.  
  
They continued walking down the large white hallway, which seemed like an eternity to Mia, until they reached the desk of Jinkai's personal secretary. The black-haired Japanese woman looked up at the two. "Hello Ms. Vinosec, Mr. Takagi you are here for the briefing this morning I presume." she said. "Um, yeah he said it was supposed to be at 10:00 am we got a little caught up in traffic this morning" Mia replied. The woman then buzzed a receiver on top of her desk. "Mr. Kensei, your visitors: Ms. Vinosec and Mr. Takagi are here to see you". She said. A second or two later Kensei responded, "Send them on through" he said. "By the way Ms. Vinosec, I thought the speech two weeks ago was great. You really should try going into politics or you should be a celebrity." The woman mentioned. "Thank You, it just came from the heart really. " Mia said. "She practically is a celebrity." Kounji mumbled under his breathe. Mia kicked Kounji in his left leg. Kounji muffled his yelp as best he could. The secretary tried not to laugh but to no avail. "You guys should hurry now." She said back still sort of laughing.   
  
The two turned perpendicular to the woman's desk and walked forward to the two large doors of Jinkai Kensei's Boardroom. Kounji went forward and opened the two doors lightly. It opened up into Jinkai Kensei's Boardroom, which had a mostly tan interior with an outlook of downtown Isaac City behind him. Jinkai stood at his black marble table, which had many of the Kensei Security Council members already seated. The ones Mia noticed were Renault Kensei's personal security coordinator, the always shady Mr. Asashi Noda, Kensei's Chief Advisor, and Veteran MT pilot turned Technical advisor Iora Conniver who was Kensei's temporary General presiding over Isaac City. Furthermore was Kensei's Liaison with the Raven Mercenary Core, Yune Kukuchi. Across from her was Alvin Drake, the Commanding Officer of the Kindred mercenary group and his Executive Officer, Phillip Wilde. Across from them was the CO of the Blades Ken Sho Long and his XO Rela Helson. Continuing around the table there was Eric Reynaldo the Acting Chief General of the Kensei Above Ground Forces and Frederick Greenfield Leader of the small yet resilient Space Forces finally at the head Mr. Kensei himself.  
  
"Good Morning Captains." Kensei said. "Morning Mr. Kensei" the two said in tandem while bowing. "Have a seat we have much to discuss." He continued. Mia and Kounji both sat down facing in Kensei's direction. Kensei promptly seated himself." Would you two like any coffee or anything, sake?" he asked. "No" the two said at the same time. "Ok, if we would continue with this meeting please before we get interrupted with anymore late arrivals." Conniver said. Mia smirked at her older superior. That bitch, if only she wasn't a General. If there was tension between anyone in this room, it was between those two. "With the apparent absence of Chrome and its leader, Motobo Nazuka, their corporate building and all of its assets are to be processed by this corporation and its security forces."" Hopefully through this acquisition, many of their trade secrets such as the human plus project and many other of its technical patents can be used to better our military forces and give us a better understanding of them." The initial processes should take place later in the week; on top of that, there will also be a speech in the Dekano district later this afternoon. Mr. Renault and Mr. Okinada will be in charge of my personal defense during this time also; " Kensei said taking a small breath with the precision of an established speaker before he went on. " In regards to protecting the internal parts of the city I have asked Ms. Kukuchi to begin drafting protection contracts to the independent mercenaries to help support our forces against external powers such as Verge, and Iseko Unlimited and other potentially hostile corporations on the outer perimeter of Isaac City." While we have the 3rd, 7th, and 15th armored MT Battalions guard the inner perimeter with the added protection of the Blades, Kindred, and Demons who will be tackling both the inside and out when we deem necessary". Kensei said   
"Mr. Kensei this is obviously a given, but if I may ask a question." Kounji interrupted  
" Go ahead."   
"Are we going to be pursuing Nazuka at all?" Kounji asked.  
"That will be our corporation's goal eventually, but for now our main focus is going to be controlling the populace in the wake of the terror that occurred last month and rebuilding the city's structure." Kensei explained. Kounji strained himself in his chair while Kensei told this to him. . Mia looked out of the corner of her eye while Kounji was struggling. She took in a deep breath has her comrade let his true feelings be known. "But how can you let this bastard escape again all he'll do is rise to power we need to focus our time on getting him now before its too late." Kounji said. "We simply can't spare the resources to start a massive manhunt for him right now." Kounji exploded from his seat. Many of the personnel stared at Kounji shocked at his vehemence. "Damn it Mr.. Kensei we need to..."  
  
"Kounji leave the room now" Mia interrupted. Kounji stormed out of the room slamming the door back has he left Kensei's office. Mia then looked back at Kensei. "I'm sorry for my counterpart's behavior" Mia said. "If he was under my command I'd have him booted for such blatant insubordination" Iola stated, "It's forgivable given the recent situation." Kensei said. "The kid has been seeking justice for quite sometime now and he was really hoping that he would get a shot at it." Mia said. "Funny, I don't remember Kensei Corp being an open forum for vigilantes," Conniver said. Anger burned in Mia's face. Mia barely subdued the urge to lash out, but doubted she could control herself much longer. Kensei looked like he ignored Conniver's outburst and focused more of his attention on Mia. This act appeased her temper. "It will happen eventually, but now is not time there are more pressing matters that must be attended to first that go far beyond tracking down old enemies." Kensei said showing a sense of sympathy. "Of course, sir." Mia replied.   
  
"As I told you earlier I'm supposed to officially deliver a speech announcing the reconstruction of Isaac City in one hour with Mayor Enki Hermann." Kensei said. "Only the problem is there have been a few death threats passed in my direction and in the mayor's by the Divine Sphere." he continued. " This terrorist organization takes a far more secretive military approach then Imminent Storm ever did; assassinations, bombings, but no real takeovers or hostage situations to date. " Iola stated. "As far as there background goes they're responsible for the bombing of a Fortgarden mall, the downing of Chrome civilian airliner, and the shooting death of that pop singer Talya Keyes during a live concert. " she continued. "But get this there is a connection between all these occurrences- they all happened during deciding moments of the corporate wars.   
  
"Sounds like these terrorists know when they can do the most damage." Long said.   
"That could be a problem, I'm guessing this where us mercenaries come in." Mia remarked. "  
Exactly, since our corporation's intelligence in this region is still not the greatest and I'm sure we don't have the guard's full cooperation, you mercenaries will be our only way at stamping out the Divine Sphere. Mr. Renault and his team will still be in charge of my personal security for noon's speech plus we do have cooperation with the guard in that area to handle a 1 mile perimeter although 2 miles might have been more sufficient." Kensei said.   
  
"Alright, In addition to this situation report you will each be receiving your last assignment for this contract period." Kensei said. Kensei stood up out of his chair and motioned his hand over to Conniver and Reynaldo. The two of them both stood up and went to the front of the room. Before Kensei sat down, Mia saw him look over in Kukuchi's direction. "Ms. Kukuchi I'm sorry but for security reasons I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Kensei said. Yune picked up a briefcase she had set out on the table and locked it up. "I understand" Yune said. She stood up from the seat she held and quickly walked over to the double doors of the boardroom. Mia noticed Yune turn around as she opened the door. "I wish all of you the best of luck in the coming months. " Yune said. She made her way through the doorway, letting the leftward door close itself behind her.   
  
Kensei extended his left hand towards the generals of the table" Generals Conniver and Reynaldo." Kensei said. The two Generals left their seats and walked up to the front of the table nearest to Kensei where there was a holographic projector and laptop fixated. Conniver hunched over and began typing in some commands for the laptop first. Immediately the projector came alive and began displaying a 3D image in front of the table. Mia noticed right away that it was a building and it looked strangely familiar to her. Then a rotating C symbol appeared in a window next to it. It's the chrome HQ. She thought. Mia and the Demons had made plenty of visits to the Chrome HQ in the past. The most recent one was an attack aimed at capturing the same facility intact. Finally, Conniver moved from the laptop and began to speak. "This if many of you remember it is the chrome HQ. Currently it is the subject of an intelligence inspection by our corporation." Conniver took a short breath and then spoke again. "This operation up until now has been protected by the 5th battalion's ground and mobile forces and the Kindred. Beginning next week the Demons will take the place of the Kindred in guarding this operation." Conniver said. Drake from the Kindred raised his hand. "General where exactly does this put my unit?" Drake asked. "I think General Reynaldo could better answer this question than I." Conniver said  
  
Reynaldo stepped up to the laptop as Conniver moved over to the side. He typed in a few commands that removed Conniver's 3D data from the room. After punching in some more commands, a map image filled the space that the chrome HQ occupied before. Mia could tell from the map's oranges and reds that it was a desert. The map zoomed in on a point. A slight magnification made a small base appear dead center on the map. "This is where the Kindred will spend the remainder of their contract period. The eight and ninth battalions are currently posted at this outpost, which is located near the Seka Dunes region of the Zahm desert. Recent attacks on patrols in their surrounding perimeter suggest that Iseko Unlimited's formidable Gemini Force is only weeks away from taking the base in this Area. Their forces severely outnumber our own. This is why we have decided to move the Kindred into this area in hopes of edging off a major offensive." Reynaldo said. Reynaldo moved from behind the table and took his seat and Conniver shortly followed suit. As the two set down, Kensei motioned over at Colonel Greenfield, who seemed to be a little disconnected from the room to Mia. Of the three times she was around Colonel Greenfield, he seemed to be too quirky for a military officer. "Colonel Greenfield, I believe you had a few words." Kensei said. Greenfield shook his head and then stood up from the table. "Yes, thanks Mr. Kensei." Greenfield said.  
  
Greenfield faced in the direction of Long and Helson's direction then he began to speak. "Your unit's assignment is very simple, you will remain on defensive duty onboard the space patrol frigate Vigilant. Recent build up of Verge's space armor and vessels have dictated that they are also preparing for an offensive. Once you and the blades are in space again you will be given more specific orders referring to mission roles." Greenfield said. Greenfield quickly sat back down.   
  
"The same goes for the rest of you. The specifics of your missions will be sent to you via terminal very soon." Kensei said. "Now if any of you have any further questions you may now ask them?."  
  
  
  
"Is there anything else I might need to know" Mia asked. "Just one small thing really, I would like for Demon Squad to work close together with our intelligence bureau. We are hoping that with your intelligence expertise and your leadership abilities we will be able a force to be reckoned with. Kensei said "Understandable, well if there is not anything else I'll be going now." Mia said." Well we are also suggesting that you take charge of your unit, the Demons." Conniver said, Mia sat up in her chair shocked. She did not just say what I thought she said did she. She certainly knew that the word "suggesting" in military terms usually meant you were going to whether you like it or not. Mia stood up, her eyes glowing and straining her face not to smile ecstatically. "Thank you ma'am it's an absolute honor but why not someone more senior like Ms. Valione to do it. She has proven her self to be a far more capable leader than I under her belt." Mia said. Mia completely despised the idea of working with anal Ms. Conniver but even more, she did not like taking a responsibility that someone, a close friend of hers, Linay Valiyone rightfully deserved. Mia's last experience working with Conniver started out nice from what Mia remembered. Mia had gathered that Conniver loved the idea that Vance had made a woman his executive officer, and she would enjoy working with her. However, Mia even knew that she was not an adequate leader and would still need much work to become one. Ever since Conniver came to that realization, she had been watching Mia like a hawk. "Well her loyalty is still questionable by many people throughout our ranks yours, however is has good as gold as they say." Kensei said." "Understandable, well if there isn't anything else I'll be going now." Mia said. Mia got out of her chair and then bowed to Kensei, which he then returned. "Congratulations Commander Vinosec." Kensei said. Kensei then turned his chair back, sat down, and looked outward to the view of the downtown area. By that time, Mia had left the room.   
  
Mia walked next to the receptionist desk that she had encountered at first. "Ms. Vinosec, Mr. Takagi just stormed out of here really fast all of a sudden is there some type of emergency or something." The woman said. "Only a really major one, his heart's broken." Mia replied. "Why, what happened?" Mishinta asked. "Um, it's a short story but I really don't feel like getting into it right now." The secretary smiled stared back into Mia's eyes. "Is there something going on between you two?" Mia stood there and actually thought about a response. "We're really just friends." Mia replied blushing slightly. "Aw come on I can tell you like him at least. I can see you smiling whenever I see you two around each other." Mishinta said. Mia could see she was getting pressed into a conversation but had to break it off. "I have to go Ishi maybe I can talk to you about it more later" Mia said. "Oh alright I'll quit pestering you about your man. Mishinta replied. Mia began walking away but thought she ought to say something. "By the way I got been promoted but like I said I got go, we will bump into each other again though. Bye!" Mia said. "Oh, well congratulations Mia" Mishinta said. Mia heard the secretary's thanks but had already began moving down the corridor  
  
The newly appointed leader ran down the corridor to the elevator that her and Kounji stepped through before, and pushed the button calling the elevator to the floor up to her floor. Upon its opening, Mia moved into the elevator quickly and pushed the button for the second the garage level. To avoid anyone on her floor from entering she slammed the door close button. Mia laid back against the rear of the elevator enjoying the solitude that would allow her to think about things more. How could Conniver suggest that I be made leader of Demons?- I thought she despised me. Even more so am I even ready to become a leader. I can barely keep the group together as it is let alone lead them to the victories Vance lead us to before. She thought. The trip down was much quicker than the trip up since there were not any stops made the entire time. As the doors opened up on garage level two, Mia ran out of the elevator at a fast pace and proceeded into the lot area. As she stepped next to one of the exit lanes, a blue sports car turned in her direction and rolled to a stop right in front of her, its tires screeching to a halt. Sure enough, it was Kounji.   
  
Mia ran to the driver's side of the Nikoni sports car and tapped on the window. The driver's side window of the vehicle rolled down partially. Looking through the window, Mia immediately saw Kounji angered pale face. "Kounji I had to excuse you from the room because you had pushed too far. I'm sorry if you took it personally." Mia replied. "Do you know how long I've been trying to find the guy who was responsible for my father's death?" Kounji asked angrily "Yes Kounji I know but don't forget we have an obligation to Kensei and to the people of this city." Mia reminded him. "Don't give me the people of this city crap, you just don't get it do you, if you had lost your father and knew that the person who killed him was still running loose wouldn't you try and do everything possible to stop that man? " Kounji said. Mia paused. She thought back to her past and instantly her mind came back with nothing, absolutely nothing. "I can't answer that question Kounji there is no way I would know how that feels. " She said dolefully. "I guess that's what keeps us apart, huh. I'm going to see if Linay's ok that's one obligation I actually believe in." Kounji said. "As for a ride to the Supply depot catch a taxi, I really don't feel like talking to you right now." Kounji mumbled.  
  
"Kounji wait a minute we still need to talk though." Mia called out to him  
The sports car screeched as Kounji slammed down the gas, drove down the rest of the parking level passing by a row of cars before it, and went up the exit ramp.  
  
"Damn You Takagi!" Mia shrieked after him. The green-haired hacker turned leader stamped the ground before walking back to the elevator and calling for the Lobby. While she felt the rush of heat that all feel when they are in love, she also felt the cold let down when they are not loved back. Every time someone tries to help him or get closer to him the further, he pushes himself away from them the further, he gets away from me. Mia knew that her fondness of him might be the only way she could even deal with his fiery behavior.  



	3. Yin and Yang

Like all the other fics I dont own armored core and surprising feel free to use my characters but make sure you dont go and do anything silly with them  
  
  
Chapter 3: Yin and Yang   
Earth 2238 July 1st 11:50 am  
Issac City Dekano District(Sewers)  
  
  
Why did it have to be a sewer of all places? The middle-aged pilot began cursing himself for taking this job but after giving it some thought the consequences would have been too great if he had declined. For most people being in a sewer would be the last thing on their mind, but for people in Olan Kanju's profession it would be just another day on the job. Navigating the vast multi layered sewer system of Isaac would be considered crazy without the use of some type of navigating map or blueprint. Luckily his requestor was a group with enough power to obtain the blue prints to be downloaded into his unit. The sewer, as much has he could gather from getting a visual check of his surroundings, had reddish brown bricked walls has opposed to the white ones that were in the other portions of the sewers. Concrete walkways ran stretched along both sides of the tunnel that was bordered with rusted, broken railings. Clearly this portion of the system has not been visited for some time. The pilot ran his thumb along his chin brushing his white beard hairs. Olan glanced down at his wrist chronometer. It read 11:57. "It's time, if there aren't any surprises it should take two minutes from the start point to get myself from this position to my expected target." Olan said to himself. His requester's intelligence had told him that many of the sensors normally placed in the sewers should be down due to the massive power surges from the attack three weeks before. Despite the advice, Olan had equipped his AC with a short life high density-jamming device. Olan knew that with the low power of his GBG-10000 that would only work for maybe five minutes tops so he would have to be in and out quickly.  
  
He began all the preflight checks, which through his Insertion configured Armored Core included his WA-RF/E, dubbed the Anti Mech Rifle his laser-blade, generator, targeting system, scanners the whole works. Meanwhile one of the sewer elevators raised his unit to the main sewer tunnel. After the checks were complete, he clicked all of his generator start systems on. Seconds later, a message confirming a successful start up scrolled across his Heads-Up Display. The old man took a deep breath has he always did before he clicked his boosters on and launched down the tunnel. The pilot flicked on his HUD's night-vision so he could see in the dark region his unit was quickly immersed in. With the green vision now guiding him to his destination, Olan checked his time again. "11:58, perfect timing." He thought. Just before he overheated his unit, Olan ordered his AC via voice command to commence silent maneuvers. Olan's booster disengaged and his brought up a small wave a water as it came to a halt. He began a more quiet tread. The silent maneuvering protocol limited his speed yet it kept his sound signature low, exactly as his mission required. He began searching for a fork in the tunnel that would be somewhere nearby, while keeping an eye for sensors or any other obstacles that might be in his path. After about several seconds of searching, he found a fork junction. He took the leftward route has his compass indicated his entrance would be. He checked the status on his WA-RF/E anti mech rifle and saw that its energy capacitors were fully charged. Olan made a sour face He had never really liked energy weapons but his requestors had insisted on this one in particular, so he was stuck with it.The gun's range was over 20 km, a great technical feat, but it was only goodfor ten shots. Worse, it took several seconds to recharge each time- as good as an eternity in a firefight and over 10 seconds before another full charge was set in the gun. The shot itself was destructive enough to consider it a long-range laser rifle rather than a sniper rifle.   
  
As he rounded a curve, he spotted the lights of an old SK-12 subterranean bot, which were still used in some of the older areas of the city for maintenance and even routine security. Remembering the security aspect of the SK-12, Olan decided to take no chances. He rushed the puny Sewer bot and slammed it up against the one of the tunnel's walls with his AC's left arm. The bot shattered against the wall, sparks splashing into the murky sewer water. Olan maneuvered his AC further down the passage, which suddenly ended directly in front of him, at a rusty iron ladder. Looking above Olan saw exactly what he was looking for an semicircular metal cover. It was rusted at the seams but not completely. To Olan's luck, it happened to be just big enough for his insertion AC to fit through. At this point Olan checked his time, 1200 hours. Damn five minutes until the target leaves the zone I had better hurry. With that in mind, Olan charged up his laser blade and began cutting the covering above him. Sparks popped and fell on to the head of his mech as he completed his incision. He dropped his WA-RF/E anti mech rifle and gripped his fingers down the middle of the loosened seal. He pushed outward, slowly opening the covering. He pushed against the two sides further, exerting his AC's arm hydraulics at full power. He heard what must have been the hinges of the door groan as he ripped the two separate sides off and flung them behind him. The metal covers splashing the murky sewage on to the man mecha. Ok, this leads to the passageway I'm supposed to take to the surface I just hope I make it in time. Olan disengaged silenced protocol, grabbed his rifle and looking upward at his destination, he boosted out of the tunnel.   
  
  
"Let the Rebuilding begin!" Kensei's leader Jinkai Kensei said. With those words the members of the press and of the city council applauded him and the Mayor. The select group, which included some of the city council and the press, stood in the sector of city that had been hit the most "Dekano". The podium was set near a building that was engulfed completely on the inside by fire. They stood at the very bottom level of the area. "I liked your take on how to handle the rebuilding whole lot Jinkai" Enki said. "Your's wasn't so bad either, Enki." Jinkai said.  
"  
Although Kensei knew that the mayor probably was not one of the most adequate administrative figures, he had been pivotal in easing people into the now mostly Kensei controlled Isaac City. The mayor of Isaac City would be vacating office soon. New elections were to be taking place within a year. The two stood there and shook each other's hands as all political figures did and stepped off the constructed stage. "We should discuss further proceedings over lunch next week, my treat" Enki said. "That wouldn't be such a bad idea I'll have my secretary set up something later" Kensei met up with Renault a little ways down the walkway to his limousine. Renault leaned close to his protectorate and began whispering." Your Limousine is parked down this way sir and if I might say sir very excellent speech." Renault said. "Hey its Mrs. Mishinta's work not mine" he whispered back. " Then a few members of the press including Kensei Global News, and the Isaac City Globe closed in on Kensei and attempted to ask him questions in which he promptly said" I'll have my spokesperson answer your questions at the press conference tomorrow." Kensei replied to them. His bodyguards began to push back the reporters.   
  
  
Olan finally reached the last corridor before a supposed exit hatch was to be found. He engaged silent protocols on his AC reducing his walking speed to a much slower pace than the norm. He pressed on toward the end of the hallway, which, led to an upward tunnel just big enough for his small humanoid AC to fly through. He then engaged his booster skyward and just has he neared the hatch he reared his free left arm and punched the metal hatch open revealing the artificially illuminated cavern of the underground city Isaac. After hitting the street and allowing his energy to charge back up for a few seconds he checked his bearings. He then engaged jamming, which would not last for long. He saw many people running down the street trying to escape from the impending doom that all felt when Mechanized Combat Units of any kind were present. Target should be to the southeast. In the bottom right corner of his heads up display a 3d map appeared and showed him exactly where his target was supposed to be, next to a large structure that was burned up in a fire in the last three weeks approximately two miles from his position.  
  
  
"Geez, Gia it looks like today is going to be an easy pay day." said Expert Armored Core Sniper pilot Nick Kawasaki. "You know its not good to say things like that who knows we could face the entire force that the Divine Sphere could muster at once." Gia replied.  
"Like we would be that lucky, you know the pay bonus we would rack up on this contract, just imagine all the kills." Nick replied.  
"Blood for Money is not right, a bonus is no excuse to want to do it more. Nothing can ever justify taking a life. " Gia said  
Nick sensed a seriousness to her voice but didn't take the warning  
"Hey, that's easy for you to say Ms. arena champion. I wish I pulled your paycheck then I would come up with phrases like that too." Nick said. Kawasaki did make a point. Gia had become a respected AC pilot by doing well in the Progtech sponsored Arena Competitions. Of course, she also did her share of missions for many different corporations and companies as much has Kawasaki, but she retained her values about death nonetheless.  
"Remind me why they put a sound minded person like me with a cocky, money grubbing fool like you Kawasaki." Gia asked  
  
"It's because between the two of us there is a balance. In laymen terms it just means you're a sound-minded spiritual type person, and I'm a matter over mind brawnish jerk. It's just like Yin and Yang." Nick said  
  
"Somehow that is the most wisest things I've ever heard you say, hey do you remember how to record these things Nick?"  
  
"I'll only do that if you tell me how good looking I am"  
  
"I was only kidding, besides you weren't exactly dead-on in your analysis. The basic concept is this, there is a side that fights and does things that people would perceive as wrong, and there is a side that is peaceful and does not seek aggression. Without the two of these together, there cannot be a balance in a person or in nature.   
  
"Ok, I got you on that, but maybe you can get right to the point" Nick said.  
  
"Hmph, It can be explained has being nature's conscience"  
  
"Wow, I never thought I could learn so much about nature and stuff from being a cold hearted killer.   
  
"After this I need to talk to Kukuchi about further team assignments and knock some sense in to her, anyway let's quit, we're not getting paid to chit chat." Gia said sighing.  
  
"Got it Empress Chen"  
  
Nick's standard old green core Silent Killer stood up on the roof of a medium-sized abandoned department store building. The Killer has he called it was equipped with a narrow targeting, Rator FCS and one of the more sophisticated radars that the late corporation Murakumo built. Nick had recently changed his light legs to higher capacity bipedal chicken legs. His counterpart Gia's AC the Ku-Wen, stood on the other side of the building looking outward into the Dekano area. It was a red AC made-up of its classic shoe-like HD-Redeye head, the XXA-SO lightweight core that allowed her to carry many expansions like incoming missile indicators and shell and energy protection screens, diamond shaped AN-K1 arms and LN-401 legs that were light and fast but could still carry enough weapons to get the job done.   
Below them sat a radar truck, which was gladly donated by the Kensei Corporation for the two Raven's use with no charge to either of the pilots. In addition, there was also a barricade provided and Guard Officers providing a small perimeter. Nick's Silent Killer had dozens of wires jacked into the AC's head that ran down the mech, over the side of the building and back to the radar truck below him. The wires linked him with a network of radars in the surrounding area to boost the mediocre radar of the AC's. Gia could not be linked due to the lack of equipment and the close range role that she had. Nick would just have to guide her if trouble actually arose.  
  
The two had spent the last hour providing perimeter defense for the Kensei Rebuilding Speech. To Nick it felt more like a waste of his time. He did get to catch up on old times with Gia though. It didn't make the experience any more worth his time but it wasn't boring at the very least. The two had been on missions together before. Many of them were in urban settings, but there was time that Nick recalled them doing a mission in the Tei Sai wastelands. That was the first time he had ever seen Gia's true side; the part of Gia that made her human. Nick recalled times the two of them had gone out drinking with a few of the other pilots. It amazed him that she would never try to pick up on any guys or allow the same to be done to her. It is as if she wanted to be alone. It wasn't right to Nick, but then again plenty of things weren't right to Nick.  
  
  
  
Nick's radio came alive with the voice of what Kukuchi said should be Renault. "Subject is beginning departure from target area in another minute or so." ""You copy that Nick" Gia said. " Yeah, I copy it's a shame we don't get to do any terrorist stomping". Nick said. " It's good to get paid for not having to kill for once." Gia said with an upbeat tone. Nick took one last glance along the horizon before he was to start his deactivation checks. As if on cue, his radar began to go fuzzy. He hit his HUD twice with his fist before it cleared up. After a few seconds, it went fuzzy again before shutting off entirely. "Gia, my radar just completely went down. "Nick said. "Your not dreaming Nick it's happening to me too, BZZTZZZZ jamming. " Gia replied Nick tried to call Renault to see if they were having similar difficulties. There was no answer. Well that answers that question. Nick rotated dragon killer to get a look around the city. He was not surprised to find a booster flume off in the distance heading toward the Large Tokisha Building. Nick released the jacks that bounded his AC to the radar truck, ran towards Gia, and leapt over her before engaging his boosters for maximum burn. Gia followed him off toward what he hoped he wouldn't regret in the morning.  
  
  
Olan took off toward the Tokisha skyscraper above the average sized buildings. He shot up like a rocket towards the roof. Olan eased off on the throttle and over flew the roof by a considerable distance. Upon over-flying the roof, he cut off his booster jet and landed on the roof crushing it and opening large cracks along the structure. He quickly spun his AC in the direction of his target and ran toward the edge of the building. He then knelt his AC down ensuring that his Core would be able to take the recoil that a weapon such as his expelled. Olan took in a deep breath before readying his WA-RF/E anti mech-rifle. Olan then used his HUD's zoom in feature and zoomed to about 96 times normal .He was able to easily locate his target a black limousine. It had just taken on another passenger before the driver went around to the front of the car to get underway. Before firing, Olan clasped his hands together and said a private prayer. "God, please forgive me for this thing that I must do." Olan said. Olan's finger rested on the trigger and has he pulled a jolt that only a solid round could make hit his core making him fall forward pushing the control stick that his fire control rested on. Olan could easily tell that his weapon would not hit exactly where he intended it to. The weapon fired. The resulting blue beam from the WA-RF/E illuminated the buildings down the street has it lanced in the direction of its intended target Mayor Herman's Limousine.   
  
Olan saw the shot hit just meters from the limousine. It had superheated a portion of the asphalt causing it and the surrounding street to buckle. It tossed the Limousine's aft and flipped it over on its roof. 10 seconds He thought Olan leapt off the top of the skyscraper to see the tracer of a large sniper bullet squeeze by his AC's head. He attempted to get a locking solution for his missiles on the supposed shooter. He locked on two missiles on the target and fired them both off at his target he could see the AC wait unit the last few seconds before an impact, before doing a barrel roll and bypassing the missiles. His onboard computer quickly identified two AC's incoming both of them light one red one green. The red one he remembered he had seen it on TV; it was the Ku- Wen. The green one was unrecognizable at first until he saw a further description of the rifle. Nevertheless, the name designation made him sure of who it was. He was saddened that he would meet his fate by one of his apprentices. The Dragon Killer. He cut off his failing FCS jamming device. So, this is fate's cruel irony. Olan thought. He started a controlled fall from Tokisha all the way to the surface floor to find cover.  
  
  
"So anyway what all is set up for me today Ms. Mishinta" The tired C.E.O of Kensei Corp said laid against the smooth leather of the Limousine's interior seating. "Well I was able to free you up an entire hour to rest on your laurels, sir" Kensei's Japanese secretary said " Great I really do appreciate it.". He replied  
  
"Don't mention it, it takes a lot of strength to talk to masses and make big speeches like that I only write I could never actually say them." She said taking off her bifocal and tapping them against her upper chest. "Despite these wonderful mini- speeches it never gets easy having to deal with complete fools." he said jokingly. That statement sparked a laugh from Mishinta. He then looked over at Renault whom was still fooling around with his radio to get it to work. Renault said moments before that his radio had gone dead and was attempting to fix it ever since they departed the construction scene. Even thought the meeting was over Renault was one who always wanted to make sure that every thing from their traffic route to someone wearing the right color shoelaces was normal.  
  
The stressed voice of a man came through on the radio. " This is Kawasaki, an Armored Core has penetrated the perimeter and has fired at least one energy shot in Alpha Location". Kawasaki said." Raven Chen and I are in pursuit of bandit requesting Air Support and mobile backup. All of sudden a pit began to grow deep in Kensei's stomach " Try and reach the mayor Renault" Kensei yelled. Renault switched over to the mayor's frequency. There was nothing but static." Damn, it why does this have to happen now of all times, don't these terrorists have any decency? Jinkai said. Renault clicked on the limo's intercom next to the door and called the driver in the front of the vehicle " Drive faster head back to the Corporate HQ on the double. Run lights if you have to." Renault said. "Got it." The driver replied. The speed of medium sized Limousine picked up. As the driver accelerated the vehicle up to top speed, Kensei and the rest of the passengers were pushed back into their seats. Kensei could still here more talking from Renault's end. "What is it Renault.?" Kensei queried. "Air support has been called in and their ETA is Three Minutes. They have been told to keep above 5,000 feet in compliance to Rules of Engagement in urban areas." Renault replied.   
  
"What about the guard do they have anything in the vicinity?"  
  
"Walker MT's in route two minutes before they do any good and helicopter should be in range in a few minutes."   
  
Kensei sighed " I hope these two are has good as the records say."  
  
  
Nick hit the ground near the street heading toward Tokisha. With his radar returning to normal, he noticed that the AC he was tracking was not heading in the direction of the package, but in his. He rushed Dragon Killer down the street ignoring cars and other vehicles that were in his path. He readied his sniper rifle and took another shot at the enemy AC. It dodged the shot and hid behind a building at the end of the street. Nick boosted forward and after a second he took a short flight into the air at which that point his target revealed it self. A blue beam lanced from the target's weapon. Nick returned two shots back and swung just right of where he thought the beam was going to be. In a split second, Kawasaki's instinct kicked in and he rammed his two control sticks hard off to the right. The beam rammed into his left arm tearing a hole right through the center of the killer's shoulder. Sweat dripped from Nick's face has he tried to make his heart stop beating so hard. He took split second to check to see if his shots registered hits on his HUD. Nothing came up. Nick tried to return the favor by firing more shots at his target while trying to run to cover. The first few shots hit the corner of the wall the enemy AC was next to. The unit popped up over the wall and fired off four missiles off towards Nick's AC . They shot ahead towards Nick and he boost strafed off to the right dodging the first three missiles and getting behind a building wall has the fourth hit the corner spraying concrete chips over near Nick. Why did I have to open my big mouth? I'd rather of had a milk run then this any day. Nick thought. Then Nick's radio and video communications came alive. "Your shooting without your fire control system has improved but you need to steady your rifle while moving dear boy". The familiar voice said. All of a sudden, a familiar image of an white bearded Indian man to go along with the voice appeared in a small box on his screen. "Olan?" Nick gasped with what he surely thought was stupid look on his face. "Surprised to see me here are you not?" Didn't I tell you when I finally decided to take a stand we would meet on the battlefield." Olan continued. "What do you mean take a stand" Kawasaki said. "This is just plain terrorism, I thought you were better than that Olan." "But you see this is for ideals, not for just me, but a whole group a people who are not comfortable with the current government's anti-religious ideals, especially the mayor's but he has already paid the price." Olan said.   
"But why this way, how come your group can't find a more peaceful solution." Nick said   
"Because that is not the way of the Sphere of the Divine." Olan boasted.   
Nick remembered the group fondly. They had asked Nick to do a job along time ago. "But why them Olan they are willing to destroy anyone it seems like." The answer you will only find if you can catch me or if you can kill me." Olan replied.   
  
The communication between the two suddenly went dead has did the friendship that they once shared. Gia, who was perched on a department store building monitoring the whole conversation, finally broke silence. "I take it you two know each other" Gia said interrogatively. Nick hit the top of his console inside the killer. "He was my teacher Gia, I suggest you back off on this one its very personal." Nick said defensively  
"Nick you know I can't do that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lost a partner to a terrorist, plus you won't be able to beat him by yourself as long as he has that rifle." Gia said. Nick was frustrated by the fact Gia wouldn't let him fight Olan by himself, although she was right; the gun he bore tore through his arm with one shot. He knew she was going to help him anyways whether he liked it or not  
" I'm not going to argue with you then Gia." Nick said "Good, It's nice you're seeing things differently. Let's try and box him in"Gia said.   
"Roger that Empress"  
  
With that said, Nick moved around to other side of the building he was using for cover while Gia leapt off her perch and ran up the right side of her parallel street.. The two rushed at extremely fast speeds to meet Olan. Olan leapt from his cover boosting straight up into the air and popping off a laser shot off at Chen. Chen did a short boost off to her left barely getting by the shot. Nick continued his run toward Olan while Olan retreated backwards. He was constantly keeping Nick more than ten kilometers in front of him. Olan's unit fell toward the street to regain energy. Gia switched over to missiles and fired off two toward Olan. Olan couldn't get out of the way in time and took the two missiles to the core jolting his unit backwards. Nick boosted up from the street to catch the view. He fired off a sniper bullet aimed at Olan's right arm in an attempt to shoot his rifle out of his hand. Olan quickly boosted to the left side of the street causing Nick's bullet to miss its target. Nick held down the trigger hoping to hit his master some how. Olan dodged the volley, fired off another laser shot and hid behind a building. The shot hit Nick's AC in the right leg, causing his whole unit to shutter has it was forced to kneel. Leg integrity diminished. "Damn it we're never going to catch him." He said as his AC hit the ground and his damaged leg collapsed.  
  
  
Nick was now a perfect target for Olan the master sniper. His unit laid hunched over on the median of the street with its electronic capillaries shooting out sparks. It was definitely not the Dragon Killer's best condition. Pilot or machine. Well this is it if there was anyone to be killed by, it would be him, shitty timing though. Olan shot up from his concrete perch and set his sights on Nick. Sweat and blood dripped profusely from Nick's forehead from an injury he gained hitting the confines of his cockpit. I'm dead His mouth dried up completely in fearful anticipation. "Not so fast bastard" Gia said. . He saw the Ku-Wen shoot up into the air with Olan's AC. Gia dashed in very close to Olan before unleashing a horizontal slash with her yellow energy sword across his AC's chest. The shock sent Olan's AC reeling down towards the cityscape below. It quickly spun head over foot down towards the ground. Nick could tell that pilot tried to engage his boosters to recover but it was for not. As he began to pull out of the tumble at its fast speed, the unit hit a roof corner of a building knocking it into a deadly uncontrollable spin along street. Its head hit the street first then it flipped over and banged its legs against the asphalt as the battered mech finally came to a stop a few hundred meters away from Nick. Seconds later the Ku-Wen hit the ground easily cracking the asphault. "Are you ok, Nick despite the fact your mech looks like hell" Gia asked. Even though he had lost a visual on Gia, he could tell she was probably smirking "I feel like hell and if my Dragon Killer was alive it would too." Nick replied before hitting his console. "Good, Hehe I wouldn't want my yang to die." Gia giggled. She ran her AC toward the fallen Olan's and locked her MG-500 machine gun on to the AC's core body before engaging her unit's megaphone. "You in the AC, By the orders of the Isaac City guard you have been ordered to stand down and surrender, otherwise aggressive actions will be used against you." She said has officially has she could sound.  
  
  
Olan awoke from his unconscious sleep the initial crash had caused him to go in to. His vision was cloudy and he could barely make out that he was in an AC cockpit. He tried to get up from his seat but his legs denied him. He felt sheer pain from a bent shard of metal that had pierced through his thigh. A large amount of blood had pooled on the grated metal around his leg and under the chair. He grabbed his flight goggles in anger from of his head and flung them to the opposite corner of the cockpit. Damn it I shouldn't have underestimated Kawasaki's partner. He had just at that moment felt the blood run down his leg and heard it drip down to the floor. His injury was very severe and he knew that if he did not get medical attention soon, he was probably going to die. I guess its my time and not Kawasaki's guess that how that works out. The onboard radio was blazing with the voice of a woman instead of Kawasaki. "You have 10 seconds to surrender otherwise we will be forced to use lethal force". Olan was able to grab his communication headphones and place them on his head. He pondered whether to surrender, survive, and face possible assassination from the Sphere or to let the woman finish him. Time was ticking down. There was still unfinished business. His death would have to wait for a while. He clicked on his microphone.  
  
Nick popped open the hatch from his Armored Core and dismounted from the unit via D/A cable. Upon touching the ground, he left the cable unraveled and ran towards his downed masters AC with a limp in his right leg. The surrender Olan had given came unconditional although he stated that he had been injured severely enough that he could not remove himself from the cockpit. Gia had told Nick that it probably wasn't going to be a trap if he came instead of her. Nick didn't object. Nick pulled out a 45. Caliber pistol that he carried with him just in case he need to defend himself in hostile territory. He ran along side the AC before pulling himself up on to the legs of the unit. He walked along the legs watching his step up toward the cockpit. He could see the burn scaring that Gia's laser slash caused from the top of the unit's arms across the center of core. He continued a limp walk towards the hatch that all AC's had under the core where the pilot operated. His heart raced as he reached the hatch. He scanned the hatchway straining his eyes to find the external hatch lever. After locating it, Nick placed his gun in his right hand that was sweating like crazy, and twisted the yellow and black striped handle before pulling it out of a locked position. The hatch shot out steam before it unlocked and slid partially open. Nick could already smell blood from the inside of the cockpit.. He could also hear coughing coming from inside. Nick slid the hatch open and he could see a figure strapped into a pilot seat.   
  
"Nick I'm dying". Olan said. Nick crawled further into the compartment a knelt down next to his old teacher. Olan looked up at him trying to hold back the pain he was feeling in his leg. Nick viewed the injuries has best he could in the dark compartment. Olan's right leg was nearly severed and bleeding profusely. His heart knew that Olan would not be with them for much longer. "Don't worry pops you can survive this" He said even though his expression showed differently. "I have a few things I need to tell you before I die though." Olan said. Olan tried to prop himself up but Nick helped him. "The group I've worked for the Divine Sphere operates out of Zam City they only have a fair sized branch in Isaac City." Olan's voice was beginning to fail. "This attack is only a small part of the terrorist campaign they have planned "I worked with them for the last 4 years helping to train their troops in rifleman and sniping skills." He continued. "But it was because they threatened me that I had do jobs for them." "They threatened to kill Nadjia I didn't feel I had much of a choice." He said with desperation in his tone. "So you did them". Nick yelled. "Yeah I didn't enjoy killing the innocent just like I didn't before"   
"So Nadjia was the cause you were talking about"   
"Exactly I just didn't want to die without knowing if she was still alive or not. That's why I didn't put up much of a fight against your female partner."   
Olan coughed again." After I saw that you were in my path, I didn't want you to have to die for my mistakes. Vibrations rattled under Nick's crouched legs. "That's the guard isn't it Nick". Olan said before coughing again. "Yeah that's them they'll be able to provide you with medical attention" Nick said. Olan began fidgeting around a lot and shaking. He was having the classic symptoms of shock. "No, let me die the sphere will find me in prison or the hospital and kill me anyway..." Olan coughed again. "I've enjoyed seeing your face again you still haven't gotten much older from when I last saw you." The older men sweat out another smile. Nick saw that the old man wanted to change the subject and Nick obliged. Nick began to cry." I've enjoyed seeing you again, too." Nick replied back sniffling. The old man coughed again. "But, could you just write me a letter next time it's a lot safer." Nick said Student and Teacher both shared a laugh with one another. Nick looked into his teacher's eyes for the last time has he saw the life slowly drain from the man's eyes. "Good bye old friend." Nick said. The saddened pilot released his grip on the 45. The sound of the gun hitting the ground rang in his ears as if time had slowed down. The sight of the old man strapped in his chair smiling was enough to make him cry.   
  
Nick crawled his way back through the hatch. The combination of the light from the Dekano Districts overhead daylight system and the sound of sirens hit his senses as if he had just transferred from two different worlds. He walked along the left leg of the fallen mech and climbed down at its the knee. He touched the ground gripping his right leg that had been injured moments before. As Nick looked down at his leg, his memory of all that had just occurred, danced in the front of his mind again. He had just forced himself to watch his friend who had been sent on a suicide mission slowly die in front of him. He looked back up at the path ahead of him noticing a figure running towards him. Nick guessed it was probably Gia. As Gia closed on Nick he could hear her gasping for breath. "He died didn't he?" Gia said solemnly. "Yeah he did Gia, but we finally repaired our friendship though. "Really. I never saw you as the type to talk things over" Gia half smiled. Nick felt her prop him up by his shoulder in order to make walking less a burden for him. "Yeah you'd be surprised at the many things I'm capable of". Nick grunted. The two pilots laughed together for a moment. As they passed the foot of the mech, Nick finally noticed the Guard corps Walker MTs a little past the intersection. "Well, now that this is over do you think the Divine Sphere is going to stay quiet?" Gia asked. Nick shook his head. "Not likely, Not from what Olan told me at least." Nick said looking into her emerald eyes. As he looked into her eyes he had never really noticed Gia like he did during that moment. Nick saw Gia smiled at him reassuringly. Any indication that she was a warrior disappeared in the smile she had.  
  
As they reached the intersection, several guard officers ran out to meet the two pilots. One of the officers probably their sergeant because he wore a coat approached the two. "Sergeant Tim Underwood, Isaac City Guard, is this the assailant Ms. Chen? "The man asked. Nick looked up at the older sergeant disgusted at his false accusation. "No, this is Kawasaki the other contracted pilot" Gia said laughing. "Oh, my mistake I suppose the assassin is still in his AC." Underwood said. "Yeah, he didn't make it though. Although I was able to get some information off of him." Nick grunted. He grabbed his leg that was burning with even more pain than it was before. Underwood waved his officers over. "Begin taping a perimeter of this area right now, go check the tan AC." He ordered "Kawasaki do you need medical attention on that leg at all?". Underwood asked. "No, I'm fine its just a slight limp I can handle it". Nick said. The Sergeant took off his policeman's cap and scratched his forehead. "Don't worry that's just the way he is, a stubborn ol' brawnish jerk" Gia laughed lifting Kawasaki up higher. "Hey we're going to need what ever information you have Kawasaki". Underwood yelled. "Don't worry about it until you deliver my pay" Nick mumbled.   
  
Gia pulled Nick up over a sidewalk and set him next to a curb. She laid back with her feet hanging over the curb while Nick sat up with his elbows resting on his knees. They both were watching numerous police cars and reporters quickly beginning to appear near the scene. It made the situation that had just happened look less hectic. "So, Nick did your ex teacher say why he tried to kill the mayor?" Gia asked solemnly. "Nick looked over his shoulder at Gia. "He said the Sphere forced him to do it, by using his wife Nadjia as a bargaining chip." Nick explained. Gia sat up with a look of surprise. "Those bastards, I can't believe they can threaten well-trained soilders to do their dirty work for them" Gia yelled. "Neither can I, and that's why I'm not going to let them get away with it. They've just made an eternal enemy" Nick said. Gia stood up in anger. "It's people like them that made me the woman I am today and now they will most certainly face my wrath" Gia cried. The two looked at each other with eager faces. "Hey against the ultimate balance they'll wish they never set foot in Isaac." Nick said.   
  



	4. Suite 172

Chapter 4: Suite #172  
Earth 2238 July 1st 2:00pm  
Yelo Heights, Isaac City(Central)  
  
  
At 2:00pm, a blue Nikoni sports car pulled into level E of the parking garage of Yelo Heights. Kounji set the sports car into park before turning off its ignition. He took a long sigh before pulling the keys out. He was still upset from the fact that Mia had kicked him out of Kensei's boardroom even though she knew how he felt. It felt like a great betrayal from the woman he had learn to care about. Kounji opened his driver side door and disembarked from the blue vehicle. The trip from Kensei's Northern Isaac headquarters to the somber underground valley of Central Isaac was a very slow one for Kounji. There was still too much construction being done to the Central/Northern Tunnels so he had to go through the 12 o'clock gridlock along with the other citizens of Isaac City. Kounji made his way through the dirty concrete parking level to a nearby elevator. As he approached the doorway he saw an "out of order" sign posted on the front. Another sigh erupted from Kounji once more. He sucked it up and then walked to and opened up the adjacent stairway access area. After making his way up 5 flights of stairs, he reached the Lobby level of the penthouse.   
  
Kounji was awestruck in the vastness of the penthouse lobby. It reminded him of a conglomerate lobby with its grayish blue interior walls and abnormally high ceiling. In the center, it had large spraying fountain with its angelic statue and a seating area with executives reading the latest business and stock magazines. It also sported a cafe and even it's own food and bar restaurant. The way many of the people were clothed displayed a high-class only radiance. I must be the only Armored Core operator that doesn't live in a penthouse suite. Kounji thought. Suddenly that thought triggered a relevant thought dawned on him. He had never actually been to see Vance at his place and had no idea what room he and Linay stayed in. So Kounji made his way over to the distant receptionist's desk passing many of the penthouse's patrons on the way. Kounji spotted one or two of them giving him snobbish looks, and easily ignored them. When he finally approached the desk the clerk asked him if he needed any help, as to be expected from him. "Would you be willing to tell me where Mrs. Kurasagi's room is located" Kounji asked. The young dark haired male clerk looked back at him with concern. Crap I should have known this was going to be a problem.   
"Well, sir that would depend on who you are?". The clerk answered. Kounji pulled out his wallet, which contained his business ID card. He turned it and faced it at the clerk.   
"I'm her co-worker Kounji Takagi now would you mind telling me where I can find her room for all I know this could be a matter of life or death." Kounji said half-yelling. The clerk was obviously startled by the attitude of Kounji and began flipping through a book of occupants to appease him.   
"I found her" The clerk said with a smirk on his face. Impatiently Kounji slammed a fist on the tall counter.   
"I don't care just tell me the number." Kounji said   
"Suite #172" The clerk said, a little taken back by the bang.   
"Sorry, about that it just happens when I'm really anxious, is that a floor up" Kounji politely said.   
"And to the right."   
"Thanks" Kounji said.  
  
He walked hurriedly over to an elevator access area to the right of the reception desk. Kounji pushed on the up button on the elevator and waited as practice through routine use for the elevator to stop on his floor. As the digital elevator locator clicked its way down to the lobby floor Kounji's palms began to grow sweaty has they always do. After several seconds the doors finally opened and two of its passengers, a couple made obvious by hand-holding came out. Kounji smirked at the two before he entered it. Upon entering the glass observation elevator he pushed the button for the first floor and waited not once looking at the view outside. After the elevator stopped on the floor and opened up he went right has he was directed and made his way down the grayish blue carpeted open corridor. When he passed Suite #169 he began counting all the door numbers has he continued. All the while he was nervous but yet anxious as to knowing state of his mysterious colleague.   
  
After a few seconds, he reached the door to Suite #172. Kounji first put his ear next to do door to see if he could hear anything. He could hear absolutely nothing coming from the room. Knocking seemed like next obvious step so that's what he did. He tapped the door a couple of times waiting for response. He heard what sounded like a groan but it was more like a moan. This was surprising to Kounji because ihe had never heard her sound really erotic unless she joking around with the group. It was enough to make most guys a little uncomfortable. Kounji suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming from inside and then they got louder has someone approached the door. Linay or whoever was behind the door was obviously looking at a nervous Kounji Takagi by now. He heard the door being unlocked from the other side. By now Kounji was definitely sweaty nervous and the door slowly opened; he began to breathe a little abnormally. "Hey, Kounji-kun what are you doing here". said blue haired vixen Linay Valione. Kounji froze has he quickly scanned his friend's features. She was in a silk blue open nightgown that didn't do a good job covering her chest. Her face displayed sleeplessness and a high redness in her cheeks that was not exactly the product of makeup. These features destroyed the beauty he was fond of seeing.   
"I've come to see if you were ok you hadn't contacted any of us." Kounji said. Linay looked down toward the corner of the door before responding.   
"I've been busy" she said reluctantly with a bit of dryness in her voice.   
"We didn't see you until the funeral but you left before anyone could actually talk to you." Kounji continued.   
"Kounji, I..." Linay began to say.  
"What Linay?"  
"I need someone to talk to right now ," Linay responded looking up at Kounji.   
"You could come in if you like but promise me you won't get mad at the mess." she said slurred but yet politely.   
Kounji nodded in thanks. All her responses to this point had definitely proved something. Linay was drunk but he didn't yet know any real intricate details like how much she had been drinking or if she had been hurt or malnourished. She silently led him into the living room of her and Vance's place. Upon entering the place, Kounji noticed the uniform grayish blue carpet and a black marble coffee table to the right which indicated that it was the living room to him. There was also a four-seater black leather couch and the reclining chair that Vance had told him about almost religiously not to mention that there was a huge 45" television in the far right corner. In the same room however there were two open and empty bottles of Koshi brand beer on the coffee table and men's clothing strum all over the floor and on the couch. Kounji looked down at the coffee table and notice a picture laid down flat on the table. When he turned It over it revealed a picture of Linay and Vance kissing each other. He assumed it was from their honeymoon because it was at a beach. Linay asked Kounji to sit down but he refused to. Kounji couldn't help but smell alcohol emanating from somewhere in the suite. Linay sat down on an armrest of the couch before Kounji interrogated her further."   
"Have you seen the psychiatrist my mom referred you to yet Linay"? Linay slightly shook her head side to side, her hair concealing her eyes from Kounji. "You've been eating, right?" he said next. Linay moved her head to face Kounji while she kicked her left leg against the side of the couch. Almost like a child on a jungle gym would.   
"Yeah!" Linay muttered out.   
"So what exactly have you been doing drinking?" Kounji said getting straight to point." Linay looked down first over her left shoulder as if she was literally looking for the answer.   
" It's how I cope, kid" Linay said a little slurred. Kounji took that response for what it was worth, which was close to nothing to him and pressed further. "This isn't healthy, for crying out loud its not even like you!" Kounji yelled.   
  
Linay stood up and shoved Kounji toward a lamp next to the couch startling the hell out of Kounji. He hopefully wouldn't have to deal with a belligerent drunk Amazon. She stared at Kounji and snarled at him. "Yeah and why should you care if I drink myself to death I've ruined you life enough along with everyone else's." She said beginning to tear up. Kounji blinked wondering exactly what he should do. "I failed the whole team Kounji and worst of all I failed my only husband why do I deserve to live!" Kounji just stood there wondering what to do and he decided to just take the listening approach for now. "Day in, Day out we fight these Corporate Wars for these goddamned suits and we lose people; friends, lovers, family and for what, so their stock can go up a percent. All the damn credits in the fucking world won't bring any of them back" Linay yelled at him. "Don't you ever get tired of it?" she continued.  
  
Linay gripped on to Kounji's jacket he still had on and laid her head. Kounji deep inside want to scream and yell with Linay, for all the friends and family he lost Donnson, Harris, Roc, his father, Vance, but what she needed right now was consolation and who else was going to give her it. Kounji grabbed for Linay's side and to his surprise Linay didn't jerk back to get away from Takagi at all. She put her arms over his and wrapped them around his upper chest, and then she rested her head against it. "It wasn't your fault Linay" he said. He then repeated. Kounji just stood there with Linay wrapped in his arms for several minutes while Linay just whaled. Poor Linay, so much pain inside her I wish I really could do something about it. As often the case goes however, there wasn't much more he could do than just hold her. Linay eased up on her crying, a little drained from releasing some of her pain.   
  
"I don't want to be alone Kounji I spent to way to much time alone." she said with her wet somber blue eyes staring at him. He released his hug around her a little bit. I don't think you should be alone either Linay that's why I'm not going to let you stay here anymore. Kounji thought to himself.   
"I'm not going to let you be alone Linay." Kounji said to her.   
  
The blue haired woman looked down and let her self loose from Kounji. Her hair draped over her right eye so Kounji couldn't see, effectively hiding her emotion. "I think it would be best if you stayed with Kai, she probably wouldn't mind at all considering you lived together at her place long enough already." Kounji suggested sincerely. Linay gripped her upper right arm with her left hand running it along its side.   
"I guess if that's what you think I should do then I'll do it" Linay muttered out.   
"Ok, then get washed up, put on some decent clothes, and come to the HQ with me then. " Kounji said a little excitedly. Linay looked up at Kounji again.   
"Huh" she said inattentively   
"Well, you want to ask her in person, right?" Kounji asked.   
Linay turned and walked over to the shower. All of sudden she stopped and just stood there. He waited and just stared at her not sure of really what she was going to do.. Linay all of sudden begin to tremble a little bit but she then continued into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Kounji sat down hoping that he might of actually done some good, but as he picked up an already opened copy of Live magazine, he heard Linay's cries and knew he couldn't fix everything.   
  
  
Earth 2238 July 1st 6:30pm  
Huataco Storage Depot.   
Warehouse 5D   
  
"Damn can't this thing go just a little bit faster" were the words of a very impatient Kai Isamo. She was snug in her red jumpsuit with a white stripe running over the chest and arms sitting in the AC simulations cockpit. She already had put on her interface goggles that allowed her to see what her ac saw directly in front of it as well as control vertical aim .Her right leg moved around has she was getting pumped up to a techno mix version of Talya Keyes' Righteous.   
"You damn young people, so freaking impatient" said Jaz Digitale the middle aged tech who was in charge of simulation area. Kai began tapping her feet subconsciously has the music's beat went up-tempo. The object of her impatience was the slow load time of the battle simulation she was supposed to be engaged in. Normally if they were part of the Raven's Nest they could schedule some time at the large indoor testing site, but since something of that scale was too large for an independent group to have, they relied on fully immersed AC simulations, which were just has good as the real thing if not better. Kai was in a near trance has the loading bar read complete. All of sudden the cockpit came alive all the lights, HUD's and information windows spread across the viewscreens around her.   
"Kentaro Engaging Test Mode" scrolled across the foremost viewscreen.  
  
"It's about freaking time, Jaz" Kai said. She could just tell he was kind of pissed and giggled over radio to annoy him further. The screen transferred from black to white and then faded has if one had just been exposed to light in to an ocean like setting. The computer generated clouds and sky were magnificent to Kai's sight. Breathtaking has they might have been, the decimated waterfront factory's and fishing ports below them ruined the view.. There were also many destroyed docks and freshly burning factories along the bay. An all too real scenario, The Newport Massacre.  
  
Kai was one of the few pilots to live this scenario first hand. A Chrome Carrier task force had sent dozens upon dozens of Mecha and fighters to destroy the last remaining above ground city left. The Demons and a few other mercenary groups had been around to help the coastal guard hold off the forces until the citizens of the city could effectively evacuate. Unfortunately, an unforeseen factor in the battle turned it into a losing situation; the radar jammer. An air base that would have been the deciding factor in saving the people of Newport was destroyed by AC's carrying the stealth device.  
  
After a few seconds of getting her bearings with the AC, her mission objectives flashed up on the screen. "Fend off remnants of the chrome military forces in the Marina District". Kai read back to herself. She engaged the boosters on Kentaro and flew North from where she started toward the burning buildings. She tried to stay low above the forest tree line directly in front of her. She ruffled many of the leaves has Kentaro tore past the forest in the direction of the beach.   
  
As she neared the end of the forest, her missile indicator went crazy. Her cockpit went red has two missiles approached her from her port side. In an attempt to shake the missiles, she disengaged her booster and fell towards the ground floor slowly at first before picking up speed. As both her and the missiles in her wake got closer to the ground she turned the Kentaro facing the missiles and boosted hard to the right still falling to the ground because of the momentum but dodging both of the missiles fired at her. The missiles shot toward a tree and impacted, exploding pieces of bark and leaves into the air. Kai continued her descent has she smacked into the ground with her legs hard but not enough to damage her stable Core heavily. "I need to be more respectful to you dear Kentaro" She said trying to comfort her non-sentient AC. Kai traversed through the forest, moving swiftly in the direction the missiles came from but at the same time watching for possible proximity mines on the trees. After a few seconds she saw two blips coming in overhead moreover, came the deafening sounds of fighter engines roaring overhead. Apparently, they didn't have the same fortune of picking up her AC's signature they did last time and didn't fire has much of a bullet at it. Lucky she yelled in her mind. She took Kentaro into the air and waited for her machine gun to pick up a firing solution on one the right most ship. As it locked on she held her index finger down on the control stick ito her side and Kentaro's machine gun sprayed off bullets at the fighter. She connected ripping the aft of the fighter and rupturing the fuel tank causing it to explode. The other fighter circled around heading back towards Kai. Stupid Ai she thought   
  
She maintained a high enough boost to keep her in the air and she switched over to her missiles trying to obtain four locks on the fighter. The fighter continued its former attack and fired two more missiles in her AC's direction . As the missiles approached her, she fired four missiles back in a rebuke. Both groups of missile passed each other intertwining like a well-rehearsed ballet and continued toward their separate targets. Kai dodged the two missiles fired her like a running back braking of a tackle. Her salvo hit its target dead on despite its attempt to break off. The missiles impacted the underside of the retreating plane ripping an explosive hole through the steal bird. Kai pulled Kentaro's left hand back in celebration and retreated to the ground.   
  
After Kentaro hit the ground, she continued the northern course she adopted earlier, but this time she boosted along the forest brush rather than in the air. She continued until she saw through the trees ahead of her and the end of the forest. Suddenly Kai lost the feeling of her mech being planted on the ground. Her vision went from seeing the sky above her and the ground beneath her, to just the blue sky. Kai had just flown off the edge of a cliff. Kai looked below here using her external cameras and just enjoyed the free fall towards the sand. Just a few hundred meters before she touched the sand, she engaged boosters slowing her descent into the beach. As she hit the ground, more blips came up on her screen to her east. Kai took a moment to get a good look at her surroundings. She could hear the waves as they went smacking into the shoreline and the calls of the seagulls as they flapped their feathers trying to escape from the booms of her mech's boosters, best of all the digital quality of the sound and graphic quality of the sim allowed her to experience them as if she was actually there.   
Aas she neared completion of her survey, she noticed the reflecting sunlight off of two units in the distance. Using the power of her HD' One head's incredible zooming ability she was able to figure out the make of the MT's more thoroughly Chrome Walker MTs mk.2's.. she thought to herself Cakewalk. They were out closer to the marina part of the beach. They weren't moving toward her which was enough to indicate they haven't gotten a bead on her yet. Really Stupid AI. She trudged along the sand carefully trying to get just within missile range of the two MTs. As she approached optimal range the two MTs began moving towards her firing missiles of their own. Kai's heart dropped has the unexpected missiles barrage flew toward her. They flew towards her like a hunting net trying to close on game. She shot Kentaro up into the air and flew towards the aggressors knowing the missiles were still incoming. She pushed Kentaro hard to the right and just has they got close she juked left trying dodge the missiles in a standard maneuver many of the Raven's used. However, it wasn't full proof. About four missiles impacted Kentaro's right side and managed to send the humanoid mech reeling back and knocking Kai into the back of her simulation chair. "This isn't fair!" Kai screamed.  
  
Kai promptly stabilized her mech and her body into an upright position, locked on to one of the walker mecha, and fired off a volley of missiles of her own. While she fired, both of the walkers fired an encore volley set of missiles at her. She continued her press toward the walkers, effectively jinkng the first volley of missiles by repeating the failed maneuver before and barely avoiding the other set. The slow walker with its limited pivoting, and torso movement and the added ailment of no boosting made it an easy target for the volley of missiles Kai fired. All four plowed into the box cockpit and weapons area ripping a fiery hole through it. The generator under the cockpit exploded the dying mech into metal shards along the port area. By this time Kai was directly over the other mech at an angle of which both the pilots couldn't get missile firing solutions She took advantage of the walker's inability to fire at targets directly above it with its dual mounted energy machine guns and started a fall directly above the mech. She opened fire with her AR-1000 machine gun riddled bullets all along the top the mech eventually tearing through and causing the mech to crumple to the ground smoking. Kentaro touched the ground next to the destroyed units. "Ok, maybe the AI is smart but its a dumb machine" she yelled.   
  
The pilot fooled around with her white hairband, because it had shifted due to impact moments before. After a minor adjustment to it. Kai set Kentaro into a run into the port area. She ran toward a cobblestone slope and leapt up onto the street. Kai boosted along the street continuing her north course to the marina site. There were several buildings located next to the docking area. They all ran parallel to docks where fishing boats and large transport vessels rested. She boosted down the road until she reached a curve. She reluctantly followed the road until she came by many of the seaside buildings. She flashed by many of the buildings that were mostly burnt and nearly unrecognizable restaurants and many retail shops actively looking around and checking her scanners. Then she saw it. It barely came up on her sensors but it was so much more devastating then she could have ever possibly fathomed. An annihilation-class tank. The medium sized tank rolled out from the city corner it hid behind and rolled moving directly into Kai's path. Kai tried desperately to maneuver out of the way. The tank fired. Kai attempted a boost upward in time but she had reacted to late. The Kentaro took the massive fireball it spewed in full. The fireball completely engulfed the Kentaro and melted the mecha completely as well an already ruined Seafood Restaurant. This was time for Kai to thank some supreme being that it was all just a simulation.   
  
The half-spherical simulation cockpit depressurized and opened up revealing a very angered female core pilot. Of course anyone would be pissed if they died during a simulation, but Kai was more than mad about dying, she was furious. She took off her black gloves and quickly climbed out of the sphere stepping onto the white tile floor of the sim room. She didn't have to look far for the culprit of her uneasiness. Jaz was looking onward from the observation room .He sure as hell better not have a smirk on his face. She moved quickly and very stiffly out the rightward steel door exit and made her way up the flight of stairs to the observation deck. Kai balled up her lowered right hand into a fist and pushed the door open with her left hand. Jaz was already facing the door as she came in with her anger apparent in her brown eyes. "What the hell was that?!" Kai screamed. She moved toward Jaz throwing her left glove on the main console board.   
"What do you mean by what the hell was that.?" Jaz said puzzled.   
"The annihilation tank coming out of nowhere ,is that your idea of a joke." She said her tone slowly calming.   
  
Jaz temporary ignored her and moved around over to a printer where the results of the run were beginning to process. This of course was beginning to anger Kai more much to her dismay. "Apparently you need a brief history lesson Isamo." He said revealing the eyes below his bifocals.   
"Shoot" she said back. Here we go again, Jaz with another one of his "history "lessons. Kai was far more used to the history lesson routine than she would have liked.  
  
"The battle of Newport City, has you know was the battle that crippled the last known above ground city in the world. The simulation you ran was an experience that one raven by the name of Carl Vistov had. Of course it was also his last." Jaz said.   
  
Kai felt a little embarrassed. Jaz Digitale knew more about battles then anyone else in the information business did. So she knew this conversation was a battle she wasn't going to win so she eased up a bit and just listened. He typed in a couple commands into the computer to the left of the printer. It came up on a some sort of a database. Then after typing in a few more commands a 3d image of a familiar piece of military hardware came up on the screen. " The annihilation tank that you went up against Kai, was made up of unknown materials, obviously they were from before...." He said  
  
"The Great Destruction" Kai finished. Alright, I'll shut up now, Jaz "she continued. Her response evoked a smile from Jaz. "You wanna go up against it again Kai" he said. Kai planted a foot back leaned on it and put hands behind her neck. "No way, The squad is meeting in another hour and plus I got to take a shower I'm starting to lose my peachy keen smell" she said laughing. "Hey don't forget your glove" Jaz said. He tossed it over to Kai and she caught but only after fumbling with it. Kai went to the door, grabbed the handle, and looked back at Jaz with pity. He was already back programming away. I wish I had that guy's dedication. Probably makes him a little lonely though. Kai shut the door slowly has she left the room.   
  
Kai walked herself slowly out of the room and took the long metal staircase back down. Kai slid her hand along the staircase's hand railing, its speed quickening as she moved faster. Peachy Keen smell, you're starting to sound like a ditz Kai. She thought to herself. Self-criticism was quickly becoming more a part of Kai's personality and it scared her. Every since she had developed feelings for her long time best friend Kounji, she had been trying to act perfect as she perceived many of the other girls. She occasionally had lapses that made her act less tomboyish that occurred around other men but never with Kounji before.   
  
When she finally reached the bottom, she turned to her left and walked out the exit door out into the familiar surroundings of D level of the Huataco Storage Depot. The door light over her head flickered periodically, which began to annoy her so she stepped further out on to pavement. "Well off to the hangar" she sighed. As she stepped out, she surveyed the surroundings before she walked out on to the main walkway of the level, which was along the center. She moved slowly across the walkway deciding she needed to think more than to work on her Kentaro. "Why should I feel bad right now? I'm about to work on mech I should be happy, right." She thought. The trip still did not last too long. Before she knew it she was already in front of Warehouse 4D.  
  
Upon stepping through the hangar, Kai's heart began to beat with excitement. Once again she was in the company of busy techies who were running the automated AC constructors and deep in conversation about the Cores; It was one of the many things she liked about the job. She just loved the ambiance of it all. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the real Kentaro. A railing that ran one of the robotic constructor arms was blocking her view so decided to move she more closely to her coveted machine. As she approached it she was able to view it's features with much more ease. Suddenly the depression that had set in moments before was lifted. Even though she was accustomed to seeing AC's under the hangar's over- head lighting, the Kentaro had a certain glow to it much like when she remembered first seeing it completed. Her eyes lit up much like a child's. It looked more like an iron god to her; It's blood red base colors along with it's white trim along its part edges were like royal robes. She moved along side the Kentaro running her hand against its left heel ,it's cold polished surface making her feel warm. Before she could get further in touch with her mecha, she felt a tap one her shoulder. She spun slowly looking for the source of her disruption. " Hey Isamo" a voice said.   
  
Kai immediately remembered the features of the short yet lankish Japanese techie named Tizoku. He was dressed in the standard gray jump suit that the demons technical crew wore along with his personal pair of rundown white tennis shoes and an old gray baseball cap that kept his ruffled black hair at bay. As he pushed his spectacles back over his nose Kai was definitely sure. "Oh, hey Ichigawa" She immediately wrapped her arms around her old friend. 1st class tech Ichigawa was one of Kai's favorite people to talk to; not only was he loosely focused with his job and comfortably talkative, but she found him to be cute, too. She released her arms from around Ichigawa smiling ecstatically. Ichigawa stepped backwards a little taken back from the welcome.   
"Happy to be back to work I see" Ichigawa remarked.   
"Uh, huh two weeks without mecha is an eternity to me." Kai explained.   
Kai saw Tizoku begin stepping backwards trying to wave her over. "What is it Tizoku? " Kai asked. "Well, I figure you're here to work on this thing so I just thought I should show you something interesting I found out from the performance terminal." Tizoku said serenely.   
  
Kai walked over to the nearby terminal, which was in front of her AC while Tizoku brought up performance specs. "So what's this great thing you have to show me?" she asked.   
"Look where it says boost ability." He said pointing.   
Kai peered into the terminal's monitor looking for what the tech was trying to show her. Kai suddenly gasped.   
"3560! How did you?" she yelled.   
"It wasn't very easy but Allie, Zack and I were able to tweak your B-VR-44's thrust capacity so now you can overdrive it. "Tizoku said excitedly.   
"That's great with a rating like this, Kentaro won't take nearly as many missile hits as it used to. Se~goi." Kai said ecstatically.  
"That's the idea, we techs do take you AC jocks' lifes into account." He said laughing.   
The two stepped away from the terminal.   
"So speaking of Alexandria, where is she?" Kai asked.  
Tizoku looked down scratching his head. "I think she went to go help the new commander setup tonight's briefing" he explained.   
"Well I guess that would make sense, but damn it I so wish I could talk to her right now." She sighed.   
"Well I'm sure it can't be that important why don't you tell me." Tizoku asked.   
Kai grabbed her left arm looking off to the side. "I don't know if I should tell you." She said. "It's kind of sensitive material if you know what I mean." she continued.  
Tizoku's face suddenly cringed with anger. "That is so messed up Kai what is it that you can't tell me I've known you for like two and a half years now." He said.  
"Well, I... I... um, well you see..." Kai stuttered. "There's this guy I like you might even say love and well...." Kai began to say.   
"You don't know how to say it to him ,is that it?" Tizoku asked.   
Kai wrapped her arms around her chest. "Yeah, but then there is more to it than that, but ... Oh forget it I can't really tell you the rest of it." Kai said.   
Kai stepped away from the terminal feeling silly. She turned her back from Tizoku and looked outward into the rest of the hangar viewing the other techs activities. She glanced over her shoulder as she heard the footsteps of Tizoku approaching her. "Hey ,it's not me you like is it?" Tizoku asked sheepishly. Kai turned towards the tech.   
"You're cute Tizoku, but you haven't been on my mind 24/7." Kai said sincerely. Tizoku scratched his head again.   
"Ok, now then who could it possibly be?" he asked. Kai glanced down at her wrist watch in an attempt to go off subject.   
"Oh look I'm running out of time I need to go get dressed so I don't show up late to the meeting." Kai said. Tizoku moved closer towards Kai.   
"Isamo, it's not like you to be so flaky." Tizoku said. Kai smiled and glanced down at her watch. Her eyebrows raised as she noticed how much time she had left.   
"I'm sorry Tizoku I just got things on the brain. Besides, I need to run up to the meeting room right now." Kai laughed.   
"Have fun hanging out with your man." Tizoku yelled.  
"I doubt you really know who it is." Kai said.  
  
  
Kai began making her way towards the stairway entrance on the far side of the hangar with the shady statements she had made to her friend fresh in her mind.   
  



	5. It wouldn't say much if....

Chapter 5 It wouldn't say much....  
Earth 2238 July 1st 8:00pm  
Huataco Storage Depot  
Warehouse 4D  
  
The events that happened today were all very unreal for Mia Vinosec. The argument with Kounji, the promotion, and the worse of three, the mystery of the successful assassination attempt of the mayor were new problems and situations that were all beginning to swell her mind.. She leaned back in her green padded chair and slumped down in it, her feet touching the back of the desk she was behind. Mia sighed at the fact that things were going to start getting rough in her life. She then sighed for all the things that were already uncomfortable in her life. The foremost of her discomfort was the fact that she was in the office of her predecessors. She had been in the office before; she had even sat in the same chair, but inside she felt certain silence from the room that was just not familiar to her. Its features now darker and lifeless contrary to how full of energy it was before. Even though she officially was leader, she still felt like the demons were not her group to lead. However, it would now be her responsibility to lead the once disorganized group of mercenaries turned exceptional and there wasn't much more to be said about it.   
  
First, there were the stack of papers she had to look forward to filling out for the Demons maintenance bills, operation fees, salary and the like. Then, there was going to be the task of acquiring jobs from several of the requestors that were out there. The tasks that would now be before her as leader were certainly not going to be easy. "Why did you have to leave me such a burden, Vance" She said in her mind sighing yet again. Luckily, if she could get an executive officer for the group these could be cut in half, but who.   
  
Mia took a break from her forms and went to the back of the Commander's Office to search through the dossier drawer for all the pilot personnel. Not only did she have to pick someone that she could get along with but she also had to pick someone that Conniver and Kensei Corporation, as a whole would like. Mia didn't exactly care for Conniver's opinion at all, let alone the corporation's but she knew that it certainly did matter. She threw the files of all the AC pilots in the Squad on her desk, sat down, and began to look at each of them has thoroughly has she could. She then separated the top two candidates' files from the rest of the files. They were labeled Amaro Satoshi, and Kounji Takagi.   
  
The first file she looked at was Kounji's file. It listed everything from his time in the Murakumo Machine Technical School through all of the mission experience he had before. Mia laughed has she looked at the character problems written in his mental evaluation. She thought about it for a moment. To have Kounji and her together doing paper work wouldn't be that bad in this position she would have plenty of time to bring something's to light, but she would have to consider the other members who had been working just as hard. She put his folder aside for the time being and thumbed open the folder of Amaro Satoshi. Well he's the new guy and many people might resent that fact that he was ex-murakumo, he was a surving ac pilot of the final battle between Murakumo and Chrome in space and proved to be quite the pilot, better than Kounji even and more experienced ,too. One of the first graduates out of the Murakumo MT Academy, Amaro was at the top of his class, and moved on to become a lieutenant in Murakumo's top AC division The Kage. The Kage was a group that was primary deployed off the space battlecruiser Tokugawa. From what Mia remembered They were both lost in the final battle with the chrome fleet. All except Amaro ,who surrendered to a Ryuuko Kiishin the former group that Vance and Kounji's father belonged to . He later became an independent Raven working his way through the ranks until Mia's predecessor contacted him.  
  
Mia grabbed a pen from the table and began tapping it against the edge. Amaro would be good, and I sure has heck know Conniver would respect him, even though their past might show otherwise. Then that anxiety in her gut began getting to her again. On the other hand, Kounji's been with the group longer so he has seniority. "Damn it" she yelled cursing her indecisiveness. She then pushed back against her chair. At that moment she heard someone talking outside and then, a second later, a shadow appeared behind the glass panel part of her door. Mia raised an eyebrow in query wondering who it might be. The figure knocked. "Come in" she said.  
  
The door opened and in popped the Male AC pilot known as Amaro Satoshi. He was dressed up in his pilot suit which colors comprised of black and green. On top of that sweat was dripping from his square shaped forehead and within the droplets some of his brown hair. "Hi, Mia I just came to see how you were doing and by the looks of it you're doing quite a bit. "Amaro said. Mia straightened her chair to face him fully. She crossed her elbows and placed them and her head on the table.   
  
"Yeah, tell me about it, like almost two hundred forms to fill out I'm just glad we weren't the one's who botched the defense on the speech with that assassination today otherwise there would be a thousand." She said. Amaro walked up to the table and planting his hands on it and smudging it with his sweaty fingers   
  
"Yeah, that's for sure, of course that really strikes me as odd though one unit got all the way through that perimeter unchecked." Amaro said. Mia nodded in agreement. Mia sat back up in her chair.   
  
"Most likely a security breach" She said. Amaro stood upright again. The two just stayed in their respective positions for a minute in an odd silence staring in to each other's eyes.   
  
"So, Mia when do you think you might be done with these papers maybe." Amaro said. Mia felt like Amaro was tipping to something perhaps coming on to her but she decided to answer.   
  
"Oh after the meeting perhaps elevenish". She blushed slightly but not too much. Although knowing me it would probably take until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning   
  
"Perhaps you wouldn't mind going out to get something to drink maybe coffee or alcohol your pick." Amaro said laughing slightly. Oh, so Mr serious decides he wants hang out now, he sure did pick a time after all that I'm going to be tired. Amaro continued to stare at Mia, waiting for an answer. . But maybe I should oblige him, just this once besides there I've been working to much   
  
"Surely you're not trying to ask me out on date, Satoshi" she said laughing a little bit while intertwining her fingers.   
  
"Well, just maybe I am trying to Vinosec." Amaro said in a foxly manner  
  
Suddenly, Mia's whole world began to collapse around her. For a long time she was normally, the one who had to pursue every man she went after. Finally though one had came to her. Her face became a little reddened due to the flattery. She realized then that she had reacted shocked in front of Amaro who looked a bit startled about what he just said also, but nowhere near how dumbfounded she thought she must of looked. "You know Amaro relationships just don't come about that way" she said trying to put a professors spin on it. "  
  
"I suppose they don't maybe they start the way yours and Kounji's does. Like a childish high school type of thing." Amaro said. Mia blushed a bit further realizing that what Amaro just said was semi true but only semi. Quickly, an easy snap back came to her.   
  
"What are you jealous Amaro, that I'm not attracted to guys as terrible has you are?" Mia snapped back. She noticed Amaro's face turning a little on the reddish side, but didn't know whether what she said about him being jealous was true or if he just was caught so suddenly.  
  
"I was just flirting Mia but apparently I found out more than I really asked from your expression." Amaro said folding his arms. "So, you do like him don't you, come on you can tell me." he continued. Mia shied away from him and began looking for a random paper to start filling out. She peeped around the paper and saw Amaro still looking at her smiling like a grown child waiting for answer. "Well, I'm waiting" he said. Mia's face reddened once again but this time in anger. If she had to she would pull rank on him, but of course her rank wasn't official to Amaro and she felt it would probably suit her best not to.   
  
"Amaro, you're such a child, I don't need you invading my love life or trying to become a part of it" She replied. Quickly her snarling expression became more irate. "Now get out of my office and help Tech Alexandra prepare for the briefing did I make myself clear?" She continued.   
  
"Right chief, on the way." Amaro said. Mia was happy to see that Amaro was finally leaving her office and at a fast speed at that but she had a little more icing on the cake to add. "Oh and Amaro." she said. Amaro held the door open and turned. "Next time consider asking me about my personal life when we're both out of uniform, this is a military base, not a grade school cafeteria." "Ok, boss" Amaro answered back. He then shut the door behind him. Laughter could be heard coming from the hallway outside from two maintenance workers that had listened to some of the conversation.   
  
Mia looked at the two files once again. She looked at Amaro's basic information paper with his photo next to it. Well, lesse, Amaro would have been a perfect choice about five minutes ago. Mia looked back at Kounji's folder other than the psych records his was untarnished. Just to be fair however she went through all the rest of Demon records including Linay's. After another half hour of background checking, the commander had finally settled on someone that was sure to make herself and hopefully them glad. With that in mind she gathered up a few slides she would need for the briefing, and made her way out the office.  
  
***  
  
  
Kai Isamo walked into the briefing area dressed up her standard. She decided before taking a shower she should go and help work on the K. Her quick run over there left her stinking profusely but she hoped it wasn't enough for someone to notice her. She could see that six metal folding chairs were all set up and that there was pizza and cola set up on the right side of the room. She was glad to see that there was food because the concept of eating had also slipped her mind. Kai saw Mia talking to Alexandra next to the podium at the front of the room and pondered whether to get in the conversation. Alexandra was excited and mimicking something that looked as if she was shooting a rifle. Kai then noticed the shorter Alexandra catch Kai in her eye so she went over and joined them.   
  
"Hi, I haven't seen you two in awhile." Kai said ecstatically. She hugged Alexandra tightly. She then moved on to Mia but much more reluctantly hugged the green haired pilot. "The Demon Sisters all back together again" she yelled. Kai felt excitement in the air from just being around friends after the recent incidents.   
"Yeah, that's for sure." the cute double pony-tailed Alexandra said." Kai put herself in more of comfortable stance.   
"All except Linay, is she going to be coming in Mia. "She said. Mia sighed. Kai could tell that Mia's response was probably going to be on the negative side.   
"Not likely, we don't know exactly where she is." Mia responded. Kai grabbed her own arm sighing.   
"Where is ol' Boy Scout at, it's not like him to be late!" Kai exclaimed.   
"You mean Kounji, he went to Linay's place to see if she just wasn't picking up the phone." she said. "Of course that doesn't explain why he's late" she continued. Mia held her head down with a look at contempt enough for Kai to actually care.   
"So what's wrong Mia" Kai said.   
"That's kind of irresponsible of him to go off and not report back to me at all about it." She said. It was descent enough explanation one that she would have normally excepted, but this was Mia and Kai knew she cared as much about the boy scout has she did.   
"Since I know him much better than you do I say he'll show up, the guy always shows up." Kai explained.   
"I guess you're right Kai" she blankly said.   
  
Just then, the door that Kai came through had opened once again. Kai turned in curiosity. This time Amaro came through the door along with someone who Kai didn't recognize. The man was very Latin in his features yet he carried a British walk with him. His hair was short and was like a patch of mini stalactites coming out of his head, which induced laughter from Kai. "Whose the rockstar Amaro?" Kai giggled. This evoked a astonished reaction from the latin pilot.   
"The name of this rockstar is Shane Martinez, Miss..." The man started.   
"Kai Miyasuki Isamo" Kai said. She folded her arms and stepped around Shane has if she was examining him. "How did you know my hobby Ms. Isamo" He said.   
"Wild guess" she said smiling. Mia walked up right next to Kai with Alexandria in tow.   
"Shane is our new hire from the core mercenary ring and he's purely from Amber Crown." Mia said.   
Kai had not seen much of Amber crown, but she remembered it was a primarily European Underground City, which housed Brits, Germans, Czechs, French you name it. It wouldn't have been the ideal place for a Japanese woman such as herself to grow up in. Shane relaxed himself a bit while he was being showcased. "It's amazing the things you go through in your travels, I mean the battles, the hardships, the women, I don't know how I even got here in one piece. He raised his eyebrow at Kai , which tipped to her that she was also being checked out. "I didn't know they allowed sixteen year olds to become mercenaries. Is this an Isaac thing?" Shane said. Kai taken back by the remark, held down her temper even though she wanted to strike at him.   
"For your information I'm 21 and probably a much better a fighter than you, You know you remind me of someone." Kai said. She said bending herself slightly and pointing her right finger at Shane. "Yeah he reminds me a bit of Amaro." Alexandria said putting her hands to her hips. Shane sniffed around Kai a little bit and discovered one of Kai's fears.   
"Hey Kai is it, have you thought about taking a shower lately you kind of... smell. Kai, shocked at the attention this new guy had paid to her, gasped. "   
"Hey unlike you I work very hard and when you work hard you smell a little bit so piss off."   
"Ok, Well if you kiddies wouldn't mind sitting down you can find out how you're going to be paying the bills for the next month" Mia said.  
  
Everyone took a respective chair Kai and Shane distancing themselves accordingly. Mia turned on a holographic projection unit near the front of the room. Then she moved over to the laptop computer she had plugged in next to the projector. Mia keyed up two pictures that displayed themselves on the projection one was slightly overlapping the other one. One of the pictures was a building and the other one with an underground passage. Mia then stepped over to the left and the hologram cleared her throat and then spoke. As you know or you should know there was an assassination attempt at exactly 12:02 this afternoon. The target was supposedly Mayor Hermann. A fanatical religious organization known as the Divine Sphere has taken credit for the attack saying that Hermann proliferated the majority of anti- religious attitude in modern society and had to be punished." Mia said before taking a small breath in between with the expertise of an accomplished speaker. "Our friends Gia Chen, Nick Kawasaki who were running perimeter defense of the area caught the assassin, but he died of mortal wounds soon afterward." Amaro raised his hand. Mia could already tell it was something stupid just by how Amaro was reaching his arm up far up towards the ceiling. She acknowledged him with a nod.   
  
"Ok, thanks for repeating the six o' clock news but what does this have to do with us?." Amaro said. Mia smirked at the rudeness of what he asked but saw it as a descent question nonetheless.   
"Little, but it is significant to our next assignment which I'll get to in a second." Mia answered back.   
  
Mia pointed a finger at the underground passage. "Here's what the news didn't tell you, the assassin got through via an underground passage that wasn't discovered during the time that Chrome controlled Isaac City.   
  
She then pointed to the top most pictures ok does anyone recognize this building at all. Kai then raised her hand. "Go ahead" Mia said.   
"Its the Chrome HQ I remember it, because You, Kounji, and I helped Kensei capture it. I hadn't gotten to see it before we had to attack it. "Kai said.   
"Correct, Kai." Mia said  
Mia then went back to the laptop and had the projection zoom in on the building. "Kensei is still having his scientists probe Chrome's computer laboratories in hopes of extracting has much information about Chrome's final works from the facility has he can. Currently the Kindred, one of Kensei's other contracts had been providing the defense for this facility considering the fact that many of Kensei's MT forces are currently engaging offensive maneuvers out in the Zahm desert. Soon the Kindred will be joining them. "   
  
Mia took a sip out of glass of water she had prepared next to the laptop. "As of next week we will completely relieve the Kindred from their defensive duties and be in charge of defending this intelligence operation." Mia said. Mia noticed Amaro get out of his chair.   
"Excuse me, Mia but how can we adequately defend the Chrome HQ when we only have half the personnel and mecha that the Kindred have?" he asked.   
"Well I asked Kensei over a secure line about it earlier but he said he had faith in us, but really to cut through the bs, it means we are going to be putting in some long defense shifts." Mia replied. Amaro then sat down.   
"Well nothing like a baptism by fire to get the blood flowing" Shane said.   
"There goes all our vacation times." Alexandria said. Kai looked over at Alexandria has if she remembered something. "Oh I forgot you techs haven't gotten any serious time off for about the last four months." Kai sincerely said. Mia then shut off the holoprojector and the adjacent computer. "Don't worry Allie, Kensei is having a group of technicians relieve your group for awhile so you guys get this operation off." Mia said. Mia saw sign of relief in her friend Alexandria's grin. "Ok well everyone you're free to go I'll have the schedule...."  
  
Just as Mia's words had left her mouth, the door to the briefing room had opened and revealed the two pilots that had been missing, Kounji Takagi, and Linay Valione. Mia's face reddened with surprise as her heart leapt up into her chest. She was glad that her friend Linay was perfectly fine it seemed on the outside and so was Kounji, but as much as she wanted to run and hug both Linay and Kounji for, duty came first. "I want to see both of you in my office right now."  
  
***  
  
After Kounji entered the commander's office, Mia told him to shut the door. The two pilots Linay and Kounji stood at attention with their both of their pairs of hands to their respective sides as Mia sat at her desk."Ok, at ease" Mia said. The two relaxed themselves but not to much. "First off, Linay how come you haven't contacted any of us in the past three weeks just to tell us that you were fine." Mia said. Linay hesitated for a moment. "I had left to be by myself for a little while above ground there was this beach Vance told me about off the eastern coast of the Northern American Continent" Linay said. "There was far too much for me to think about for me to find time to call any of you." She said as sincerely as she could. Mia actually believed Linay for the time being; it wasn't beneath Linay to go off somewhere sometimes and not tell anybody. "Ok, Linay even though that is your nature, please don't do that again we thought you might have committed suicide or something." Mia said. "Don't forget like Vance always said we're all a family and we should act as such, Got that. Now is there anything else you need to tell me Linay?" Mia said politely.   
"No there isn't, except thanks for sending old Boy scout to tell me about this briefing." Linay answered. Mia folded her arms while she was sitting down her pure relief although she could not believe that absolutely nothing was wrong with her but she was relived to see her friend alive and at least physically well.   
  
"Ok. now with that out of the way, I have an announcement to make." Mia said. Kounji stood eager waiting for what she had to say while Linay just paid attention. "Mia stood up and cleared her throat. "As of today Kounji Takagi has been promoted to the rank of Lt. Commander as well as appointed the position of Demon Squadron Executive Officer." Kounji's eyes widened in shock from what he just heard. "Me, why me?" Kounji said. Mia slanted her eyes and hardened her face. "Well Kounji I think you have enough experience and also the right attitude to handle the task of XO" Mia said folding her arms once again. "Wow, I'm surprised you think that highly of me". Kounji said. Mia could hear a grumble come out of Linay's mouth behind Kounji. "Yes, you dummy" Mia thought but wanted to say. "I also thought you could actually learn something from having some type of authority." Mia said. Excited, Kounji finally settled down a bit. Mia laughed within herself at the impact she had on him.   
  
"Ok I'm happy about Kounji getting a promotion but can I go get something eat. I spotted food just sitting there on the way in plus I need to go and tell everyone now before I explode from all this formal crap." Linay asked springing up and down. "Go on ahead Linay." Mia said. "Thank you, see you two later I'm sure you got command stuff to talk about" Linay said before opening the door and leaving the office. Kounji walked over and shut the old run down door. "Ok now Kounji I want an...."Mia began to say.   
"I apologize for how screwed up I was earlier to you Mia you know how you can just get mad over something and do irrational things." Kounji explained sincerely.  
  
"Yeah I know how mad you can get over something and do irrational things."   
  
"Hey you must have acted irrationally at sometime."   
  
Mia immediately thought back to her college days and parties and other types of young unruly behavior but she chose to keep those things private. "I might of at sometime Kounji but we're in the professional world now Kounji, things like that outburst you had earlier won't cut it." Mia continued.   
"Understood, I'll be more careful from now on." Kounji said smiling sheepishly.   
"Good boy" Mia giggled.   
  
Mia crouched down and pushed out a box from underneath her desk that had a bunch of papers in them. She lifted her head from the crouched position she was in and saw Kounji's face turn from one of calmness to one of regret. "Guess what you get to help me with, Kounji" Mia said smiling. "If it has something to with reading and writing I want out." Kounji said. "As your first official act as my XO you get help me fill out each and everyone of these forms. Isn't that great Kounji?" Mia said reminiscent to a holo shopping network host. As Mia handed him the first paper, Kounji sighed and took it in his hands unwillingly. "Wow, where's my pen?" he said passively. Mia laughed at the dullness in Kounji's voice. "Don't worry about it you have little ol me to help you fill them out, if you don't understand something just hand it to me." Mia said.   
  
The two commanders worked in to the night has minutes upon hours went by. The two chatted their way through signing most of the papers aware but not caring that most of the personnel had left the warehouse to turn in for the night. It was about 2:30am in the morning and the two had begun to get a little bit on the restless side. Kounji had volunteered to make some coffee while Mia decided to stay in her office. She found the hours that they spend together sorting through papers and talking with Kounji to be very enjoyable. As a result, the heat that burned for him burned even brighter that night. She knew that blood had rushed to her face reddening it once again just thinking about him and the fact that he was gone gave her a chance to reflect. Geez, I wonder if he feels the same way about me. That would be great if he did but he doesn't really act like it but then again I hide my feelings from him a bunch too what if he's doing the same, damn it.   
  
She finished signing a document off about the Kensei Corporation Military Operational Code of Conduct and placed the paper into a file that her and Kounji started. Mia heard Kounji's footsteps coming back towards the door and continued going about her work. A few seconds later Kounji pushed open the door with two cups of hot French vanilla coffee in his hands. The smell of the coffee at this time at night was very ambrosial and appeasing. "Ok I'm back." Kounji said has he set the coffee down on the floor. "I got French vanilla, because it was all I could find in the briefing room area." Kounji said. "No that's ok, I actually like the taste of French Vanilla as long as it doesn't have too much sugar." Mia took a sip of the coffee. She felt like she was going to become hypoglycemic from the taste of sugar that danced in her mouth. The warmth of the liquid made it quickly down her throat much to her displeasement yet she didn't care it was late and not a time to be particularly picky. "What time is right now Mia?" Kounji said yawning. "It's 2:30am GST" She replied.   
  
"When are we going to call it a night Mia" Kounji said.   
  
"I say about three o' clock would be a good estimate I have to meet with some Kensei Transportation people tomorrow to talk about moving our AC's to the Chrome HQ." Mia said while she reading another document. " That must be fun, I'm probably going to work on the Tiger tomorrow afternoon with Allie." Kounji said. Mia found and the opening to seize an opportunity she could try to ask Kounji out for a night on the town but would he take the bait. That thought lingered in her mind has she looked at another document. Would he even be interested in going out on date and if so should I call it a date and also how should I bring it up?. After a second of lingering, she went for it. "You know Kounji filling out all these papers with you was actually kind of fun. "Mia said.   
"Yeah I agree it was fun although I'm probably going to feel like crap in the morning.." Kounji said. He smiled then shifted his legs from the Indian style he was in, to just laying them out flat on the carpet.   
"Hey Kounji you wouldn't happen to be doing anything this Saturday would you?" Mia asked bluntly.   
"Not much I was thinking about hanging out with Kai earlier in the day because we haven't talked in awhile, why do you ask?" Kounji asked.   
Mia's heart suddenly dropped with jealousy but she went through with what she had in mind. "I thought maybe we could go to this nice Italian Restaurant downtown on Saturday night maybe eat and talk a bit more." Mia said. She desperately didn't want Kounji to reject her offer and tried to display that way by having a sly look on her face in almost the same manner Amaro had done to her earlier.   
  
"Sure I don't see why that wouldn't be a good idea we really haven't talked that much." Kounji said. "Yeah I know that's great! We could call it a date" she said excitedly. Yes, I finally got him to go out with me but is he going with me just on a friendly date or on a romantic one. She noticed Kounji blushing a little bit but didn't press him. She knew much too well about his shy personality.   
  
The two went back to the work they had once started for the next half an hour. As soon has 3:00 came around the two parted after saying their goodbyes. As Mia made her way outside Warehouse she felt has if she was missing something. After checking her purse and her workbag, she was still stumped. She had every thing her makeup, her pads... her keys. Then it hit her like a shot from the highly accurate WA-RF/E anti mech rifle. She didn't have a car." How could I have forgotten to get a ride home with Kounji? "She said out loud. Unable to do anything about it she moved swiftly towards the personnel elevator, which wasn't too far from the vehicle elevator.   
  
About halfway there she heard the sound of a car coming up behind her slowly. Mia glanced over her left shoulder. Immediately she recognized the familiar blue Nikoni. Thank god. She ran towards the car along the left side and matched eyes with Kounji who unlocked the passenger door. She opened the door anxiously and got in. "Hey you didn't think I was just going to leave you here,eh?" Kounji said. "No, not really you're my XO it doesn't say much about you to the others if you left me here to walk home." Mia said. She shut the door and the shoulder strap automatically pulled across her chest and locked. "I suppose you have a point but then again it doesn't say much for the highest paid demon to not even have a used car." Kounji said. He drove the car over the vehicle elevator. "Hey it's still an unofficial promotion, jackass." Mia said waving her finger at Kounji. At the click of a button, the elevator began its ascent.   



	6. Fire Starter

Chapter 6: Fire Starter  
Earth A.G.D(After Great Destruction) 126   
July 10th 11:45pm  
Chrome HQ (Outer Grounds)  
  
The Outer Parking lot of the Chrome HQ was perhaps too large for Lea Keller. As she finally began to reach the sidewalk, she found a convenient concrete parking marker not an ideal place to rest but a place nonetheless. She let her purse off her shoulder and took a seat to remove her black high-heeled shoes. She was still unaccustomed to the long walks she had to make from the building's various entrances and her heels ached as a result. "Oww" she grunted. "If I knew I was going to feel this much pain I would have joined Corporate Security instead of becoming a Terminal Scientist." Lea complained aloud. A white blouse and a newer Isaac City Squatters soccer jacket she commonly wore on her way home from late shifts covered up lea's upper body.  
  
After resting for a moment she placed her heals back on, picked her purse up and continued on her way. As she reached the security stand at the end of the parking lot, she waved at the security guard near the window before speaking into the window's microphone. "Hey, How was your day Mr. Security?" Lea said perkily. The guard laughed before speaking into the microphone on his end.  
  
"Really crappy if you could call it a day." the guard lightly chuckled. The guard balled one of his hands into a fist and covered his mouth before he hacked and coughed. Lea felt a nasty taste forming her mouth from the sight of the man's pain. The guard made what looked like one large hack from Lea's point of view before he spat into a trashcan or at least she hoped.  
"That's a disgusting cough Greg, have you considered going to a clinic at all?" she asked cringing.   
"I have, but I can't afford to take the time off. Bills are going to be rough this month for me." Greg replied solemnly.  
"Geez, Greg I'm sorry. Hey how bout I get you some cough syrup there's a drug store not too far from here."  
"No, really you don't have to I'll get myself some later"  
"The store is going to close in about another half hour, so let me do this for you just this once" Lea asked politely.  
"Ok, just this once, but when I see you tomorrow I'll pay you back." He replied scratching the back of his head. The man began coughing again. Lea nodded and went on her way.   
  
It was close to midnight that Thursday night by the look of the neighborhood around her. The drug store wasn't too far from the parking garage which made her believe she could make it there and back to the garage without making it home too late. It had been about five minutes since she had left the coughing Greg back at the Garage and was about less than a block away from the Shinitomi Food & Drug store. Things felt oddly quiet for the Terminal Scientist. She could hear cars screeching off in the distance but couldn't really see any on the streets around her or any people either. Any real noticeable sense of life could only be seen in the neon lights of the shops down the street. She folded her arms against her Isaac City Squatters soccer jacket just below her chest in an attempt to hold some of her warmth in. The night dimming of the City's lighting system was considered the most dangerous time for women but, because she could easily see the store's name in hot green and pink neon Japanese characters, it didn't matter much to her.   
  
As she stepped off the street on to the final stretches of sidewalk, she noticed a woman hunched over near a wall a little ways from the entrance to the store. The first features Lea could make of the woman as she slowly approached her was of her bandage wrapped ankles and the cheap wool cloak she wore over her person. In her passing of the woman, she was able to get only a look at the bottom of her pale face and what little strands of red hair she could see from the top of her hood. Should she been able to actual see them, she would be almost certain she had met the other woman's eyes. Seconds after she was already past the homeless woman, she reached the entrance to the Grocery store. She pulled the old fashion handled door towards her and swiftly pulled her near shivering self inside.  
  
The store's overhead lighting flickered and sparked as Lea entered the Shinitomi store. "Hey close da door it's already cold enough n here" The store clerk said. Lea quickly pulled the handle on the inside toward her felt the door slowly lock itself into place has she let go. As she walked further in the store she took a quick glance at the store clerk. His stocky figure made it apparent why he was in the drug store business other than anything else. His bald hair, bushy mustache, and five o' clock shadow made him seem a bit on the shady side but his bristling smile made up for the rough look.   
  
"Sorry about that. My mind was drifting a bit. " Lea politely apologized.  
  
"It's alright I would just hurry up and get what ya gonna get, all the freaks come out at dis time a night". The clerk said.   
Lea nodded and flicked her hair. She began searching around the small isles of the store looking for some kind of cough medicine and after few minutes of close searching, she was stumped.   
"Hey lady, if you're here for medicine we keep that stuff behind the counter now. Too many kids shoplift that stuff and get high off it." The man said grunting.  
"Oh ok then I'll take some Cofenol, The pill kind" She politely said.  
  
The man ducked behind the counter and Lea could here him mumble has he looked for her Cofenol pills. " There we go" the man said. He promptly stood up and threw the tiny package of Cofenol pills on the counter. "That'll be five point twenty-three credits please". He smiled. Lea took out her credit card from out of her purse, swiped it through a little cred card container on her side of the counter, and punched in the password for her card. The machine bleeped and blooped as it took the required credits off her card. "Ok well you take care of yourself out there miss, like I said I wouldn't want any of those freaks out there to do anything to you this late at night." The man said while he placed the pills slowly into a plastic bag.   
  
"Let's just hope not" Lea laughed with a hint of seriousness.   
  
The woman swiftly pushed the door of the old drug store, and made it back out on to the sidewalk. As she looked around the nearby streets, she saw that they were as empty, dark, and lifeless has they were before she retreated into the store. A slight draft flowing down the street prompted her to fold her arms across her chest to keep some warm air with her. She began walking the exact same way she came except one thing about her path was different. The old cloaked woman that had been there before had vanished. "That's good she was beginning to give me the creeps, hopefully she started off towards one of those shelters." She thought. She cautiously started walking back down the street towards the chrome building. Suddenly as she reached the corner of one of the city streets, she felt something hit her feet causing her to trip and collapse onto the ground.   
  
A little bit stunned by the fall, she sat up on her knees and shook her head, trying to gain control over self. " Damn ,unevenly paved streets" she grunted to herself.  
  
"You got to give the city credit, they did a better job on this area than in some of the nicer areas in Isaac." A woman's voice said.  
  
Lea's eyes quickly sprung open and she gasped uncontrollably. The voice of the woman sounded rather distinctly European. As if she was from Eastern Europe in particularly. Lea turned her head and not to her surprise, she saw the cloaked woman on her bandaged feet and emerging from the shadowy wall behind her. "Who the hell do you think you are tripping me for no reason?" Lea asked angrily. Lea brushed some of the dirt off of her skirt and jacket and stood up on her heels. She kept her distance from the woman and awaited an answer.  
  
"On the contrary, I tripped you because I don't like my prey running away from me. The woman said.   
"What, you can't be serious, stay away from me. ' Lea yelled rather loudly  
  
Suddenly everything Lea had on her became less important including the cofenol pills that she came for originally,. She threw her purse towards the woman and began stepping backwards. After taking a few steps and seeing the woman had not picked up Lea's purse at all, she immediately slid out of both her heels and ran the other way.   
  
Lea scrambled herself off the sidewalk's curb and darted off into the street. She looked behind her and saw the cloaked woman unsheathe an object with a silver glint she had concealed within her clothing. The woman quickly began to give chase to Lea prompting Lea to move faster than her body wanted her to. Lea jumped up on to the curb and scrambled her way across the sidewalk with the echoing sounds of the woman's footsteps getting closer and closer to her with each breath Lea heaved. "Somebody help me she's crazy" Lea shrieked at the top of her lungs. Even with the adrenaline rush she had gained, her legs simply began to slow down. The steps of her pursuer grew louder until she heard the woman's breathing behind her. Suddenly Lea felt the most gripping pain burning in her ankle. She quickly fell to the freezing sidewalk, grimacing in the most terrifying of pain. This time her legs wouldn't allow her to move much and Lea could barely manage to get a glance at the wound she had just gained. Lodged dead in the center of her right ankle, was the object she saw the woman holding in the distance, a small throwing knife. Lea screamed in pain and tears began to fall from her eyes. "Why are you doing this to me?" she asked sincerely.  
  
The woman knelt down beside Lea's bleeding ankle and pulled out the knife from it. She began crawling over Lea with the tiny knife and hovered around her chest. The cloaked woman smiled deeply into her quivering face and laughed. "Because once I've found my prey and conquered it I can't possibly let it go." She moaned. Overcome by a degree of trauma that she had went through, Lea's world began to quickly slow down and with the red haired woman's green eyes still staring her back in the face, darkness overwhelmed her.  
  
  
  
Earth A.G.D 126 July 11th  
Chrome HQ (Military Grounds)  
  
Mia held herself against a handrail has she oversaw the final part-to-part connection of Shane Martinez's AC. She sighed as the unit's head, which looked much like a rhino horn, finished its last connection and steam shot out the side. Mia laughed.   
  
"That is probably one of the most lifelike AC's I've ever seen" a Kensei techie next to her commented  
Mia nodded as she looked at the younger tech. She really didn't want to seem like a grumpy commander, but it was truer than she wanted to admit. "I've been a commander for like a week and it still feels like a dream to me." She thought to herself.   
  
She took herself away from the handrail and began to walk along the upper deck of the Chrome HQ's primary hangar ,her hands resting firmly below her butt. As usual, she was dressed in her causal suede jacket, which was unbuttoned, and a light blue blouse that was button just slightly above her bust. She was also wearing tight yet roomy white pants and black leather boots. It was one of the few neat liberties about being a mercenary, not having to wear a military uniform constantly. The commander still carried her trusty terminal goggles, has she called them, connected to her hair band that she wore over her natural blonde hair. She had gone ahead with dyeing her hair back to her natural color to honor Kensei's rules that an officer cannot have hair of unnatural colors.  
  
She glanced around viewing the activities of Kensei's techs has they serviced the units of Linay, Kai, and Shane as well her Emerald AC. The past three days of their mission had proven to be very tiresome for the six pilots and the machines even though they hadn't suffered any combat damage were still fatigued. As she and many of the other pilots predicted, they had been very uneventful that week except for the drills that the commander of the base set the pilots throughout their second day. The extra training had managed to catch the young commander off guard and her nerves suffered because of it.   
  
She took a right at a junction on the upper deck walkway and started into a hallway decorated in bluish-gray bulkhead. She suddenly heard a familiar voice behind her. "Commander Vinosec" a male voice called to her. Mia reluctantly turned her head. "No, its him" Mia screamed in her head  
  
"Yes, Commander Orindas" Mia replied lightly. The older white haired commander's wrinkled irate face suddenly began to tear at Vinosec's mind. She knew either she or one of her people had probably done something to upset him again.  
  
"Just so you know Commander Takagi and Lieutenant Satoshi have finished their watch of the building and are beginning to head back in now. The only problem I have with that is Captain Valiyone and Lieutenant Isamo aren't here to relieve them." Orindas complained.   
"My apologies Commander Orindas I'll see that it won't happen again". Mia sighed.   
"This kind of behavior is unacceptable, even if you are just mercenaries. See that it changes." He stated. Mia nodded and immediately went on her way.  
  
As much as she hated the commander's words deep inside, she knew they bore truth. Kai and Linay were two of the most undisciplined pilots out of the group and they had a track record of showing up late for anything as minor as routine training exercise to being at an airport in time for a mission. While she walked through the hallway thoughts about two female pilots began to arise "Don't they know that every time they do this it makes me look I don't have control over my group?" She thought. While turning on to the hallway that bore her office door, she fingered her blond hair searching for the miniature terminal clipped to its strands. She pressed down on the terminal and an orange screen materialized a few inches from her face. As she reached the door to her office, she had already shifted the terminal functions to making phone calls. She pulled a card from her jeans pocket and slid it through a receiver on the door's side. After a confirmation beep, the many locks within the door's structure unlocked and the entrance way became open.   
  
Mia walked into her makeshift office just has the person she had begun calling finally picked up, on their end. "Hello" The voice yelled into the phone. Mia cringed her eyes has she was caught slightly off guard by the loudness of the voice. "Kai, this is Mia where the hell are you?"  
  
  
***  
  
"We're caught in traffic right now" Kai yelled trying to keep her speech above the blaring techno in the background. Kai eased her foot on gas petal causing the car to crawl its way forward until the transport in front of her stopped causing the already late duo to have to stop once again. Kai cursed herself for not trying getting out the door sooner. Linay's feeble attempts at fixing a descent breakfast for the two ended in chaos and the cleanup of their apartment caused their late departure. She glanced over at Linay who was sitting in the passengers seat bouncing around to the beats of the song on the radio.  
  
"We? Is Linay with you as well?" Mia asked her angrily.  
  
Linay turned her head a little excited at the mentioning of her name "Yeah, we're roomies remember besides I haven't replaced my bike since I threw it at those techno hitmen awhile back"A/N I'll tell that story one of these days Linay replied sheepishly.  
  
"Oh yeah, Well anyways, I have Orindas lecturing me about you two not showing up on time. That type of stress I don't need, you guys." Mia replied sincerely  
  
"Don't worry boss, we'll be there in less than twenty minutes, that I can promise." She exuberantly yelled.  
  
"Ok, well I've got some desk work to do, report straight to the hangar when you get to the HQ and hopefully you might be able to save yourselves from the Commander's wrath as well. Later!"   
  
Kai clicked off the phone and set it down next to her parking brake on her left. She glanced off to her left noticing her friend looking out her window at sights the city block had to offer from the spaciousness of Kai's small boxy Huishodi pearl. Knowing that her friend was zoning out yet again she retreated to her driving responsibilities as well as her thoughts. "Another beautiful day of getting yelled at by Mia, and that anal ass Commander." She thought to herself. Suddenly a loud horn from behind her told Kai that she had been zoning out also. She promptly eased her foot on the gas inching her car up again before coming to a complete halt. "Is my life ever going to get any better?" she asked aloud.   
  
Linay turned her head away from the road looking at her friend banging her head against the steering wheel. Kai lifted her head away from the padded steering wheel and focused on her friend whom she knew some words of wisdom would emerge.   
  
"Well, If it helps Mia is going to be going on a date tonight so you won't have to deal with her oping for you." Linay said  
  
"So, Miss Anal finally got asked out by someone, that's great. Do you know who the lucky guy is?" Kai asked  
  
"Yeah, Her and Kounji-kun are going to have so much fun together" Linay said merrily  
Kai's heart suddenly dropped lower than had in a long time. She felt has if she would have to literally catch her heart before it fell out of her chest. "Her and my boy scout going out on a romantic night on the town. The world is ending." Kai screamed in her head. The thoughts inside of her head suddenly began to grow irate. She was angry, and not at all happy for Mia.   
  
Suddenly the space in the road ahead of her began to clear and she was able to hold her foot on the gas a little heavier than usual. She suddenly noticed in the way Linay moved her lips that they had not concluded the conversation she started before.  
  
"Yeah, I can just see her and Kounji's lips pressed together, reveling in a sweet majestic bliss." Linay laughed making tiny kisses at the passenger side window.   
  
Kai gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, angry with herself. Kai then proceeded to slam on her car brakes hard. Why can't he just like me instead of her? " She yelled in side her mind. She heard a loud thump sound has the pilot next her was thrown into the dashboard of her car's interior.   
  
Kai turned to check on her friend Linay and noticed her activities had gone from kissing the window to a taken back look. "So you finally decided to stop, huh?" she asked sighing   
  
"Yeah, I think the car just got angry with me. Besides this lady walking by with the red hair is giving me this weird look." Linay replied scratching her head.  
  
"I wouldn't blame her, some blue haired chick making kisses towards me would make me think she was a lesbian or something." Kai remarked laughing with more upbeat tone.  
  
"If you ask me people in this day and age are far too uptight. No one seems to take in all the fun stuff in life anymore." Linay said shaking her head unhappily  
  
"Well, maybe if everyone drunk as much coffee in the morning as you do Linay they would have your vibrant energy to take in all that "fun" stuff." Kai mocked at Linay. She then proceeded to take her hands off the wheel and make a sprinkling motion with her hands.  
  
Linay's face puffed angrily. " I don't drink that much coffee" she yelled with a joking tone.  
  
"Girl, We run through like a carton of coffee in like a week whenever you crash at my place" Kai yelled in seriousness.   
  
"Well, if it helps we can go to Café Isaac some days and drink up all their coffee" Linay replied projecting a false sense of a ditz. She giggled and twirled her blue locks adding to the act.   
  
There was pause in car and then suddenly, the two friends burst into laughter. Kai's hard laughing slowed before Linay's did as turned towards her friend and smiled. For that year and a half that Linay lived with Vance, Kai didn't have nearly as much fun as she was now. "How did I ever get through last year without this girl?" Kai thought positively. "But Linay must really be dying inside over losing Vance. How can she still stay even remotely the same person?" She thought with sincerity. Kai pushed her foot on the gas pedal again before letting off. She smiled at Linay while the pale skinned woman beat her fists against Kai's dashboard during their impatient wait in traffic.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Good Morning Ms. Keller" a young Guardsman said to the terminal specialist.  
  
An energetic and vigorous red-headed Lea Keller nodded in thanks to Guard as she stepped through the entrance to Outer Grounds much earlier than she expected. "7:55" she read on her Plastic sports watch. "I'm going to have use my time much more wisely next time." The woman laughed to herself.   
  
She was dressed in comfortable light green Hawaiian shirt with a sleeveless white undershirt beneath it. She wore comfortable cargo shorts beneath the shirt and to top the whole outfit off some straw sandals. As her usual routine she would have to check in at the Outer Grounds checkpoint in order to make her way through the inner parts of the building to where she conducted much of her work. She pulled on her bag slung over her shoulder as she continued her steps through the lobby. The chrome HQ lobby was bustling with an enormous amount of activity. Many techs. MT pilots, and military personal were littered densely amongst the HQ's lobby. Several of them were pushing and shoving their way into elevators, others from the night crews dragging themselves through the front doors with blank expressions. Several Kensei guard officers stood readily at their patrol post within the lobby with hardened expressions their military training gave them, on their faces. While a few meters from the hallway she needed to enter, a burly shaped man bumped into her. Startled, the small woman fell backward to the ground.  
  
"Sorry, Miss, are you ok?" the big man asked, with a sense of embarrassment.  
  
Lea turned towards the man with a fuming expression on her face. Instantly she caught eyes with man's picture I.D and name. "H. Marcus" It read.   
  
Her eyes perked up as she saw how sincere the man looked. His jaw was square and sported a bushy goatee that covered his smiling lips. His eyes were large and the wrinkles beneath his eye lids told the tale of a man who had seen his share. "Yeah I'm ok, I guess because I have such a small and insignificant role in this building you couldn't help but run in to me." She replied as she took the man's hand. The man pulled her up not using much of his strength Lea figured.   
  
"It can't be much smaller than mine. I'm a sanitation engineer." He replied heaving a sigh  
  
Lea giggled nervously and smiled. "Cleaning up after all of the staff here makes your job here much more important than mine and I'm a terminal specialist." She declared.  
  
Marcus blushed slightly before he reached down to retrieve Lea's bag. Quickly he reached into his back pocket and grabbed onto a plastic card in his back pocket while he turned facing his back to Keller. He slipped the card into her front pocket before bringing the bag to the nervous Keller. "Here you go Miss, you don't want to forget this." He said.   
  
Keller took the bag from the man and nodded in thanks. The man quickly continued on his way but Lea failed to move. She quickly scanned the area with her eyes to see if any of the military policemen had seen the transfer take place. After confirming to herself that there weren't any wise policemen, she continued to the security access elevator. Because of the transfer happening in the first place she knew that everything was going according to plan. Soon she would be able drop the phony façade and become herself again.   
  
As she approached the access elevator, its passengers were already exiting its confines. Keller quickly squeezed herself through the many other workers in her path and entered the elevator. She took in a small breath of relief as she pressed button to the B12 level and the elevator brakes unclamped and the lift began to descend. Keller scanned the confines of the elevator with her eyes as she began to think about the next few phases of her plan. "Ok, Langley so far so good." She thought to herself.   
  
Besides her many talents as a commando, an assassin, and an AC pilot, Carla Ustasia Langley was also good with impersonating personnel of many kinds for the sake of espionage. She wanted to feel remorseful about torturing pass codes and names of important personnel out of the young girl but it was an ability she lost over time in this conflict. Around her in the small elevator were at least two civilians hopefully they would stop on a higher floor before they reached the central information core down below. The elevator hummed and clacked has it shot downwards further beneath the earth. After going a few floors down the elevator doors slid open and one of the passengers, a male left the passenger elevator. Langley gave an internal sigh of relief before she glanced over at the passenger behind her. The passenger behind her was a blonde haired woman a little shorter than she was and wearing fairly classy clothing with a body that she felt most men would admire. Although she didn't feel the jacket that she wore went well with the rest of the clothing, her style almost matched someone else's from the past. She couldn't help but think she knew her from past experiences. Suddenly the woman turned her head towards her and Langley saw a reflective piece of hardware clipped on the woman's hair just past her ear. "Oh my god, Mia Vinosec". She thought out loud.   
  
The woman turned towards Langley with a seemingly forced smile on her face. "Yep, in the flesh" she replied. Vinosec extended her hand out towards Langley or whom she thought was Keller and smiled.   
  
"Kensei and Nazuka must both think along the same lines. I can't believe she's here and I'm guessing some people from her little group are here, too this job is going to be all the more difficult." She began to think. She extended her hand out to Vinosec and began laughing and giggling while bouncing around in place like an anxious fan girl.   
  
"I'm Lea Keller but my friends call me Lokiya on the web. This is like so unbelievably cool that we have a fellow hacker on the base now protecting us, I mean what are the chances that someone so low on the rung as me would run into a top pilot as well as a top hack like you here. I must have read the article on you in For Hire magazine dozens of times" Langley said playing to the part of Keller as she studied. She was doing such a good job she almost made herself vomit at her campy act.  
  
"Uh, that's neat although some of the information was a bit over dramatized in that article. I didn't know I had any followers." Vinosec replied shocked.   
  
Langley ran up to Vinosec grabbing on her side, which she could already tell, made the pilot uncomfortable. "Are you kidding, nearly the entire staff on the bottom floor is stoked. "  
  
"Really, I'll have to stop by and visit with my fellow hacks some other time today. I'm really in a hurry right now cause I have to make sure two of my pilots cores are all prepped before they get here." She disappointedly replied.   
  
The elevator began to slowly decelerate as they reached a floor from which Langley could tell was before the exit to her floor. A small chime rang as the doors to the elevator opened; Langley happened to notice that the doors opened up to a long corridor that ran until it opened up into a larger area. "The hangar" she presumed.   
  
"Don't forget to stop by later if you get a chance Ms. Vinosec. We'll be happy to see your face around the center." Langley yelled while waving at the departing woman.  
  
The pilot nodded her head, as the door slowly shut in front of Langley. Immediately when the door sealed Langley's heart stopped beating its way out of her chest. "Shit" she yelled as she finally began to calm herself down. The only thing she was in high spirits about was the fact that her outfit was done well enough to fool someone who probably had looked at her profile dozens of times. She began to bring herself together as the elevator began to slow it's humming and stopped at her floor. In a matter of seconds she would be walking through one of the most highly secure floors in the entire building. Soon she would be stealing what couldn't be stolen. She smiled at the possibilities that awaited her as the doors to the floor open. "Showtime" she hummed to herself happily  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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